Olivier Collignon

Olivier Collignon is a new researcher at CIMeC (Ricercatore di tipo A). 

Crossmodal perception and plasticity

Having different sensory systems offers many benefits such as enhanced discrimination and accelerated reaction to objects, which arise because the brain is able to construct a unified and more robust percept through the integration of information acquired by the different senses. Our goal is to probe, using psychophysics and neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, TMS, EEG/MEG), where, when and how the brain merges these informations in order to create a unified perception of our environment.
The presence of different sensory systems also paves the way for considerable flexibility by allowing a system to supplement another following sensory deprivation. The question here relates to the fascinating ability of the brain to rewire its components in order to compensate sensory deprivation (e.g. blindness or deafness). More specifically, we want to investigate if the crossmodal plasticity classically observed in the sensory deprived regions may follow organizational principles similar to the functional topography (domain specialization) of the region observed in non-deprived individuals.

Pubblications (the last three years)

2012
Dormal G, Lepore F, Collignon O (In Press) Plasticity of the dorsal “spatial” stream in visually deprived individuals. Neural Plasticity.

Collignon O, Charbonneau G, Nassim M, Peters F, Lassonde M, Lepore F, Mottron L, & Bertone A (In Press) Reduced multisensory facilitation in persons with autism. Cortex.

Crollen V, Dormal G, Seron, X, Lepore F, & Collignon O. (In Press) Embodied numbers: Early vision drives the reference frame used for the spatial representation of numbers. Cortex.

La Buissonnière Ariza V, Frasnelli J., Collignon O., & Lepore F. (2012) Olfactory priming leads to faster sound localization. Neuroscience Letters, 506(2):188-92.

2011
Cuevas, I., Plaza, P., Rombaux, Ph., Mouraux, A. Delbeke, J., Collignon, O., De Volder, AG., Renier L. (2011). Olfactory and trigeminal function in early blind and sighted humans assessed using chemosensory event-related potentials. B-ENT, 7(1): 11-17.

Champoux F., Collignon O., Bacon B., Lepore F., Zatorre R.J., Théoret H. (2011) Early- and late-onset blindness both curb audiotactile integration on the parchment-skin illusory task. Psychological Science, 22(1): 19-25.

Collignon O., Vandewalle G., Voss P., Albouy G., Charbonneau G., Lassonde M., Lepore F. (2011) Functional specialization for auditory-spatial processing in the occipital cortex of congenitally blind humans. PNAS, 108, 4435-4440.

Collignon O., Champoux F., Voss P., Lepore F. (2011) Sensory Rehabilitation in the Plastic Brain. Progress in Brain Research, 191:211-31.

Frasnelli J., Collignon O., Voss P., Lepore F. (2011) Crossmodal plasticity in sensory loss. Progress in Brain Research, 191:233-49.

Crollen V., Mahe R., Collignon O., & Seron X. (2011) The role of vision in the development of finger-number interactions: Finger-counting and finger-montring in blind children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109(4): 525-39.

Dormal G. & Collignon O. (2011) Functional selectivity in sensory deprived cortices. Journal of Neurophysiology, 105(6): 2627-30.

Girard, S., Collignon, O., Lepore, F. (2011) Multisensory gain within and across hemispaces in simple and choice reaction time paradigms. Experimental Brain Research, 214: 1-8.

2010
Cuevas, I., Plaza, P., Rombaux, P., Delbeke, J., Collignon, O., De Volder, AG., Renier, L. (2010) Do People Who Became Blind Early in Life Develop a Better Sense of Smell? A Psychophysical Study? Journal of Visual Impairment and Research, 104, 369-379.

D’Hondt, F., Lassonde, M., Collignon, O., Dubarry, A.S., Robert, M., Taisne, M., Rigoulot, S., Honoré, J., Lepore, F., & Sequeira, H (2010). Early brain–body impact of emotional arousal. Frontiers in Human Neurosciences, 19: 4-33.

Collignon, O., Girard, S., Gosselin, F., Saint-Amour, D., Lepore, F., & Lassonde, M. (2010) Women process multisensory emotion expressions more efficiently than men. Neuropsychologia, 48(1): 220-5.

Frasnelli, J., La Buissonière, V., Collignon, O., Lepore, F. (2010) Localisation of unilateral nasal stimuli across sensory systems. Neuroscience Letters, 478(2): 102-6.

I. Cuevas, B. Gérard, P. Plaza, E. Lerens, O. Collignon, C. Grandin, AG. De Volder, L. Renier (2010). Development of a fully-automated system for delivering odors in MRI environment. Behavior Research Methods, 42(4): 1072-8.

Voss, P., Collignon, O., Lassonde, M., & Lepore, F. (2010) Adaptation to sensory loss. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 308–328.

2009
Collignon, O., Voss, P., Lassonde, M., & Lepore, F. (2009) Crossmodal plasticity for the spatial processing of sounds in visually deprived subjects. Experimental Brain Research, 192(3): 343-58.

Frasnelli, J., Charbonneau G., Collignon, O., Lepore, F. (2009). Odor localization and sniffing. Chemical Senses, 34(2): 139-144.

Collignon, O., Davare, M., Olivier, E. & De Volder, A.G. (2009) Reorganisation of the right occipito-parietal stream for auditory spatial processing in early blind humans.  A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation study. Brain Topography, 21, 232-40 [Special Issue on Multisensory Integration].

Collignon, O., & De Volder, A. (2009) Further evidence that congenitally blind participants react faster to auditory and tactile spatial targets. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(4): 287-93.

Collignon O., Charbonneau G., Lassonde M., Lepore F. (2009) Early visual privation alters multisensory processing in peripersonal space. Neuropsychologia, 47, 3236-3243.