Principal Investigator
I lead the Computational Brain team (check the link to view the team members).
The team is part of the Unicog research unit. The team is based in NeuroSpin (CEA/Inserm) on the Paris-Saclay campus, and in the Institute for NeuroModulation in the Sainte Anne Hospital in Paris, (France). Short bio 2025 - now: CEA Research Director 2023 - now: joint position at CEA and Sainte Anne Hospital 2020 - now: team leader 2015 - 2024: CEA researcher 2013-2015: post-doc in Stanislas Dehaene's lab for the Human Brain Project. 2009-2013: PhD work under the supervision of Mathias Pessiglione in the Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) team at the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) in Paris (France). You can find my full CV here. And here is my GitHub. |
Research statement
Are you sure about your own judgments? Does it actually matter? I am interested in understanding the computation and roles of uncertainty in the brain. More specifically:
(1) How does the brain estimate the uncertainty about its own judgments, and communicate this subjective confidence to others?
(2) How does subjective confidence regulate learning? In particular, how does it regulate the inference of trends and regularities in dynamic environments?
(3) How does subjective confidence regulate our decisions, such as the decision to explore certain options, or to seek out information by mere curiosity?
I combine several scales and approaches in order to understand how those three processes operate in the brain:
(1) How does the brain estimate the uncertainty about its own judgments, and communicate this subjective confidence to others?
(2) How does subjective confidence regulate learning? In particular, how does it regulate the inference of trends and regularities in dynamic environments?
(3) How does subjective confidence regulate our decisions, such as the decision to explore certain options, or to seek out information by mere curiosity?
I combine several scales and approaches in order to understand how those three processes operate in the brain:
- Computational level: the goal is to provide abstract, formal accounts of brain computations. I rely on Bayesian (and more generally probabilistic) inference to this end.
- Macro- and meso- scales: the goal is to understand the coordination of brain-scale networks that supporting those computations (macro-level), and how the inferred variables and their uncertainty are encoded by large populations of neurons (meso-scale). I currently use fMRI and MEG to this end.
- Molecules: I am interested in the role of neuromodulators in those computations, which actually bridge gaps between single neurons (of which they modulate the activity and plasticity) and large-scale networks (in which they are released simultaneously). I use fMRI, physiological measures (e.g. pupil size) and pharmacological interventions to address those questions
Contact
Email: florent dot meyniel at cea dot fr
Address:
INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging unit
CEA/SAC/DRF/I2BM/Neurospin center
Bât 145, Point Courier 156
F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex FRANCE
Directions:
How to come to NeuroSpin?
See instructions here.
My office is #2044 (go to 2nd floor, turn right, it is the last office at the end of the corridor) in NeuroSpin, in the CEA Paris-Saclay Campus.
How to come to the Institute for NeuroModulation?
See instructions here.
My office is #5, on the 4th floor, 12 rue Cabanis, Paris
Address:
INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging unit
CEA/SAC/DRF/I2BM/Neurospin center
Bât 145, Point Courier 156
F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex FRANCE
Directions:
How to come to NeuroSpin?
See instructions here.
My office is #2044 (go to 2nd floor, turn right, it is the last office at the end of the corridor) in NeuroSpin, in the CEA Paris-Saclay Campus.
How to come to the Institute for NeuroModulation?
See instructions here.
My office is #5, on the 4th floor, 12 rue Cabanis, Paris