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ABSTRACT We examined the capacity of human subjects to accurately identify the emotional content in verbal descriptions of various situations. Six emotions were studied: happiness, surprise, fear, ...
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The purpose of this experiment was to study the accuracy of judgment of facial expressions of emotions that were displayed for very brief exposure times. Twenty university students were shown facial stimuli that were presented for... more
The purpose of this experiment was to study the accuracy of judgment of facial expressions of emotions that were displayed for very brief exposure times. Twenty university students were shown facial stimuli that were presented for durations ranging from 10 to 50 msec. The data showed that accuracy of judgment reached a fairly high level even at very brief exposure times and that human observers are especially competent to process very rapid changes in facial appearance.
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The purpose of this study was to compare the recognition performance of children who identified facial expressions of emotions using adults' and children's stimuli. The subjects were 60 children... more
The purpose of this study was to compare the recognition performance of children who identified facial expressions of emotions using adults' and children's stimuli. The subjects were 60 children equally distributed in six subgroups as a function of sex and three age levels: 5, 7, and 9 years. They had to identify the emotion that was expressed in 48 stimuli
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The aim of the experiment was to study the relation between accuracy of judgment of facial expressions of emotions and time for judgment. The results for 34 college students confirmed previous data showing high performance in... more
The aim of the experiment was to study the relation between accuracy of judgment of facial expressions of emotions and time for judgment. The results for 34 college students confirmed previous data showing high performance in identification of all emotions, although there were some important differences between emotions. Also, times for judgment were longer for the emotions which were more difficult to identify.
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The aim of this experiment was to study the identification of the facial expressions of six emotions in French-speaking québécois subjects. Two methods of stimuli presentation were used. The results showed high identification levels that... more
The aim of this experiment was to study the identification of the facial expressions of six emotions in French-speaking québécois subjects. Two methods of stimuli presentation were used. The results showed high identification levels that were comparable to those of others working with various cultures. The simultaneous presentation of a facial expression and of the same face with a neutral expression had no effect on the subjects' accuracy of judgment. Female subjects had a higher identification level of disgust than male subjects. Finally, the analysis of the distribution of judgment errors partially confirmed previous data concerning confusions of emotions.
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Monkeys with removals of medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures are widely recognized as valid models of human global anterograde amnesia, a syndrome that arises consequent to damage to a finite set of brain structures situated in the... more
Monkeys with removals of medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures are widely recognized as valid models of human global anterograde amnesia, a syndrome that arises consequent to damage to a finite set of brain structures situated in the medial temporal lobe and/or medial diencephalon. However, a comparison of memory deficits in human and nonhuman primates with MTL damage has presented a long-standing puzzle. Whereas amnesic patients are impaired in learning object discrimination problems, monkeys with MTL damage are typically not. One possible explanation for this difference is that object discrimination tasks for humans and monkeys differ in that the former but not the latter requires the use of contextual information. If this analysis is correct, monkeys with MTL damage might be disadvantaged in learning to discriminate similar objects presented in different contexts. To test this possibility, we evaluated the effects of excitotoxic lesions of one of the MTL structures, the hippocampus, on the rate of learning of discrimination problems embedded within unique contexts. Monkeys with hippocampal lesions were impaired relative to controls in learning object discrimination problems of this type. These findings strongly support the idea that the difference in the effect on object memory of MTL damage in human and nonhuman primates is due to a difference in the opportunity to employ contextual cues rather than to a difference in the organization of memory.
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Research Interests: Zoology, Biology, Canadian, Heart rate, Atlantic Salmon, and 4 moreFishery, Salmo salar, Conditioning, and Salmo
Research Interests: Psychology, Animal Behavior, Medicine, Animals, Male, and 15 moreAnimal Model, Hallucinogens, Exposure, Phencyclidine, Novelty, Rats, Rat, Motor Function, Operant Conditioning, Grooming, Behavioral Sensitization, Drug treatment, Glutamate Receptor, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
In the present experiment, sham-operated (SH) and fornix-transected (FX) rats were trained on a new nonspatial, odor-guided task. On each session, eight odor pairs were presented twice. On the first occurrence of a pair, rats were... more
In the present experiment, sham-operated (SH) and fornix-transected (FX) rats were trained on a new nonspatial, odor-guided task. On each session, eight odor pairs were presented twice. On the first occurrence of a pair, rats were reinforced for pushing the container (go response) in which the olfactory stimuli were placed. On the second occurrence, they were not reinforced and had to refrain from responding (no-go response) to be scored as success. Rats were first trained to criterion on odor pairs made of replicates of the same odor (S pairs). Then they were trained to criterion on pairs made of different odors, each member of the pair overlapping with that of another pair (O pairs) and finally, on pairs of different odors with no overlap (NO pairs). The results showed that the number of sessions to reach criterion was significantly higher in FX than in SH rats during training on O pairs, but not during training on S or on NO pairs. These findings are consistent with the configural (Rudy and Sutherland, 1995: Hippocampus 5:375-389) or relational (Eichenbaum et al., 1994: Behav Brain Sci 17:449-518) account of the hippocampal memory function.
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Research Interests: Psychology, Behavior, Prospective Memory, Medicine, Cognitive Map, and 15 moreMemory, Hippocampus, Animals, Male, Engram, Rat, Intrusion, Maze Learning, Choice Behavior, Radial Arm Maze, Fornix, Hippocampal formation, Psychomotor Performance, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
The contribution of the dorsal subiculum (DS) and of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) to memory for distinct and overlapping visual stimuli was examined. Rats with selective lesions of the DS or the DH were compared to sham-operated rats on a... more
The contribution of the dorsal subiculum (DS) and of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) to memory for distinct and overlapping visual stimuli was examined. Rats with selective lesions of the DS or the DH were compared to sham-operated rats on a delayed matching-to-place task guided by distal visual cues in a modified radial-arm maze. Overlapping distal visual cues could be perceived from three arm entrances (adjacent arms) and a unique set of distal cues were more likely to be seen from the other two arm entrances (distinct arms). Rats with DS lesions were impaired on trials with baited adjacent arms, but not on trials with baited distinct arms. Rats with DH lesions were impaired on both types of trials. These results suggest that the DS and the DH are necessary for pattern separation and that they may have different contributions to memory.
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychology, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Medicine, Memory, and 15 moreHippocampus, Cues, Animals, Male, Overlap, Rats, Analysis of Variance, Maze Learning, Photomicrography, Dorsal hippocampus, Hippocampal formation, Random Allocation, photic stimulation, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
As a preliminary step towards the use of natural odorants in laboratory imprinting studies, olfactory learning by young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, was assessed by heart rate conditioning to L-cysteine (3.8 × 10−4 M). Fish were... more
As a preliminary step towards the use of natural odorants in laboratory imprinting studies, olfactory learning by young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, was assessed by heart rate conditioning to L-cysteine (3.8 × 10−4 M). Fish were successfully conditioned and decelerated their heart rate to L-cysteine compared with that of a control group tested under random pairing sequences of L-cysteine and an electrical stimulation. The cardiac conditioning response and sensitivity of fish to L-cysteine was unaffected by a procedure of curarization. Cardiac performance of fish conditioned to L-cysteine was also compared with that of other groups of fish exposed to four different odorous substances. The conditioned response increased significantly across trials when morpholine, L-cysteine, or L-phenylalanine was used as the conditioning stimulus, but remained unchanged throughout the experiment in the presence of L-serine or L-threonine.
Research Interests: Zoology, Migration, Biology, Learning, Olfaction, and 6 moreHeart rate, Heart, Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar, Conditioning, and Salmo
Polymorphisms in the gene encoding the brain serotonin synthesis enzyme Tph2 have been identified in mental illnesses, with co-morbidity of substance use disorder. However, little is known about the impact of Tph2 gene variants on... more
Polymorphisms in the gene encoding the brain serotonin synthesis enzyme Tph2 have been identified in mental illnesses, with co-morbidity of substance use disorder. However, little is known about the impact of Tph2 gene variants on addiction. Mice expressing a human Tph2 loss of function variant were used to investigate consequences of aversive conditions on ethanol intake. Mice were familiarized either with ethanol or a solution containing both ethanol and the bittering agent quinine. Effect of familiarization to ethanol or an ethanol-quinine solution was then evaluated using a two-bottles preference test in Tph2-KI and control littermates. Mice from both genotypes displayed similar levels of ethanol consumption and quinine avoidance when habituated to ethanol alone. In contrast, addition of quinine to ethanol during the familiarization period resulted in a reduction of avoidance for the quinine-ethanol solution only in mutant mice. These results indicate that loss of function mutation in Tph2 results in greater motivation for ethanol consumption under aversive conditions and may confer enhanced sensitivity to alcohol use disorder.
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Rats with N-methyl-D-aspartate lesions of the hippocampus that partially damaged the subiculum and controls were trained on 2 versions of the radial-arm maze cue task, with either proximal or distal visual stimuli. In Experiment 1, the... more
Rats with N-methyl-D-aspartate lesions of the hippocampus that partially damaged the subiculum and controls were trained on 2 versions of the radial-arm maze cue task, with either proximal or distal visual stimuli. In Experiment 1, the relative positions of the stimuli varied across trials. Lesioned rats were impaired when trained on the distal version, as opposed to transiently slowed down when trained on the proximal version. In Experiment 2, the relative positions of the stimuli were fixed throughout training. Lesioned rats were impaired when trained on the distal or the proximal version. Further analyses showed that combined damage to the hippocampus and the subiculum was required to impair performance in the proximal, but not the distal, version.
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Control, Cognition, Performance, Medicine, and 15 morePrefrontal Cortex, Animals, Male, Phencyclidine, NMDA, Rats, Rat, Hallucinogen, Maze Learning, Drug treatment, Glutamate Receptor, Psychomotor Performance, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, and functional outcome
Rats with excitotoxic lesions of the dorsal or ventral hippocampus and control rats were trained on 2 spatial working memory tasks: the standard version of the radial maze with 8 baited arms and the non-matching-to-place procedure in the... more
Rats with excitotoxic lesions of the dorsal or ventral hippocampus and control rats were trained on 2 spatial working memory tasks: the standard version of the radial maze with 8 baited arms and the non-matching-to-place procedure in the T maze. Dorsal lesions produced deficits in both tasks, whereas ventral lesions did not affect learning in either of them. A volumetric analysis of subicular damage showed that dorsal hippocampal lesions caused a deficit in the non-matching-to-place only when accompanied by damage to the dorsal subiculum; on the other hand, lesions to the dorsal hippocampus impaired performance in the radial-arm maze regardless of the extent of subicular damage.
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychology, Animal Behavior, Cognition, Medicine, and 15 moreLinear models, Behavioral Neuroscience, Learning, Hippocampus, Animals, Male, Analysis of Variance, Rat, Behavioral, Maze Learning, Neurosciences, Radial Arm Maze, Dorsal hippocampus, Hippocampal formation, and Brain injuries
Thyroid-histological (epithelial cell height, follicular eccentricity) and thyroid-radiochemical (thyroxine, triiodothyronine) activities were examined in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, undergoing smoltification in relation to cardiac... more
Thyroid-histological (epithelial cell height, follicular eccentricity) and thyroid-radiochemical (thyroxine, triiodothyronine) activities were examined in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, undergoing smoltification in relation to cardiac conditioning to L-cysteine (olfactory learning). Changes in plasma levels of thyroxine were also examined along with those of resting heart rate, during and after smoltification. In a related study, we reported greater learning ability in age-groups 3 (612–619 d since birth) and 6 (642–649 d) as well as a greater long-term olfactory memory in age-group 3. In the present study, thyroid-histological activity was correlated with olfactory learning during smoltification. Higher histological values occurred concomitantly with greater learning in age-groups 3 and 6. During smoltification, changes in thyroid-histological activity were different from those of radiochemical activity. Apparently different plasma–tissue fluxes of thyroid hormones occurred between age-groups 3 and 6. Plasma thyroxine was correlated with resting heart rate. Our results suggested that thyroid hormones play a role in olfactory learning and imprinting in anadromous salmonids.
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Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychology, Fluorescence Microscopy, Medicine, Brain Mapping, and 15 moreAnatomy, Cerebral Cortex, Animals, Projection, Amygdala, Entorhinal Cortex, Inhalation, Limbic System, Macaca Mulatta, Medial Temporal Lobe, Macaque Monkey, Mono, Brain Diseases, Perirhinal Cortex, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests: Psychology and Philosophy
Malgre la forte exactitude qui caracterise l'identification des expressions faciales emotionnelles (Kirouac et Dore 1982; Kirouac et Dore 1983), il n'en demeure pas moins que chaque recherche dans ce secteur revele un nombre non... more
Malgre la forte exactitude qui caracterise l'identification des expressions faciales emotionnelles (Kirouac et Dore 1982; Kirouac et Dore 1983), il n'en demeure pas moins que chaque recherche dans ce secteur revele un nombre non negligeable d'erreurs de reconnaissance. En outre, ces erreurs d'identification ne se distribuent pas au hasard, mais se repartissent suivant certains patrons. Tomkins et McCarter (1964) nomment 'confusions' ces tendances systematiques des sujets ä commettre les memes types d'erreurs. Utilisant des Stimuli faciaux emotionnels repartis en neuf categories (interet, joie, surprise, tristesse, degoüt, colere, peur, honte et neutralite), ces auteurs observent les confusions suivantes: l'interet est identifie comme de la neutralite et vice-versa; la peur est prise pour de la surprise, la colere pour du degoüt, la honte pour de la neutralite ou de la tristesse. Cependant dans les deux recherches pre-citees, les difficultes et les erreurs d'identification observees peuvent avoir ete induites non seulement par les confusions mais aussi par le nombre de categories d'emotions et la confection proprement dite des Stimuli faciaux emotionnels. Ekman et ses collaborateurs ont defini des criteres plus rigoureux pour guider Pelaboration de poses d'expressions faciales et ont ainsi permis d'ameliorer la confection des Stimuli (Ekman et al. 1971). En outre, l'accumulation des donnees sur le jugement de configurations faciales emotionnelles a eu pour effet de preciser le nombre d'emotions dites fundamentales c'est-adire les configurations qui sont les mieux reconnues tant ä l'interieur d'une culture qu'entre diverses cultures (Ekman et Oster 1979). II s'agit des six emotions suivantes: joie, surprise, peur, degoüt, colere et tristesse. Les etudes de jugement utilisant ces categories d'emotions permettent, elles aussi, de constater des patrons de confusion d'emotions. Ainsi, Kirouac et Dore (1982) et Kirouac et Dore (1983) rapportent les patrons de confusion suivants: la joie est interpretee comme de la surprise, la peur comme de la surprise et vice-versa, et le degoüt comme de la colere. Jusqu'ä maintenant, le phenomene des confusions d'emotions n'a ete aborde qu'indirectement. Les donnees dont nous disposons proviennent
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Research Interests: Neuroscience, Motor Control, Evaluation, Locomotion, Medicine, and 15 moreMotivation, Animals, Motor Coordination, Male, Hallucinogens, Phencyclidine, NMDA, Hallucinogen, Motor Function, Exploratory Behavior, Glutamate Receptor, Motor activity, Acoustic Stimulation, NMDA receptor, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Research Interests: Psychology, Schizophrenia, Medicine, Motivation, Biological Sciences, and 15 moreAggressive Behavior, Aggression, Animals, Male, Phencyclidine, Rats, Analysis of Variance, Rat, Hallucinogen, Rat Model, Exploratory Behavior, Glutamate Receptor, Avoidance Learning, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
It is well established that the dorsal hippocampal formation is crucial for spatial memory in rats. However, little is known about the distinct functions of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum. To examine the role of the... more
It is well established that the dorsal hippocampal formation is crucial for spatial memory in rats. However, little is known about the distinct functions of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum. To examine the role of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum, Long-Evans rats with excitotoxic lesions (NMDA) of the dorsal hippocampus (DH), the dorsal subiculum (DS), or both (DHDS), and controls were trained on a nonmatching-to-place task. Then, to identify the strategy used by each group, they were tested on the same task in the dark with the T-maze being rotated between the sample and the test runs. In the light, rats with combined lesions were impaired. In the dark, groups DH, DS, and controls performed near chance level except in trials without rotation, suggesting the use of a sense of direction. The same rats were trained on a radial-arm maze task. In the light, where proximal visual cues were accessible, combined lesions affected performance whereas in the dark, it was impaired by all lesions. This experiment demonstrated that the dorsal subiculum and the dorsal hippocampus play a crucial role in processing idiothetic information and/or in maintenance of this information in memory.
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychology, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Medicine, Memory, and 15 moreProblem Solving, Brain Mapping, Hippocampus, Animals, Male, Path Integral Dynamics, Rats, Analysis of Variance, Radial Arm Maze, Dorsal hippocampus, Hippocampal formation, Random Allocation, Path Integral, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Olfactory imprinting was assessed in young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, undergoing smoltification (parr–smolt transition) by measuring their cardiac responses to a natural odorant, L-cysteine. Condition factor and body coloration were... more
Olfactory imprinting was assessed in young Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, undergoing smoltification (parr–smolt transition) by measuring their cardiac responses to a natural odorant, L-cysteine. Condition factor and body coloration were used for characterizing the degree of smoltification. In Experiment 1, heart rate conditioning to L-cysteine was used to compare olfactory learning between fish from different age groups of smoltification. In Experiments 2 and 3, other fish from the same age groups of smoltification were exposed to L-cysteine and their long-term olfactory memory was assessed by measuring their unconditioned cardiac responses to L-cysteine after smoltification. In Experiment 2, the time from the end of odor exposure to testing for olfactory recognition was kept constant for ail age groups of smoltification whereas in Experiment 3, the age of fish tested for olfactory recognition was kept constant. Greater conditioning (heart rate reduction) to L-cysteine occurred in age-groups 3 (612–619 d since birth) and 6 (642–649 d) as compared with any other age group of smoltification. Fish tested for odor recognition exhibited a greater unconditioned response (cardiac deceleration) to L-cysteine if they belonged to age-group 3 than to any other age group of smoltification. Our results demonstrated the existence of a sensitive period for olfactory imprinting in Atlantic salmon that occurred between 21 and 28 d after the onset of smoltification induced in the laboratory.
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Research Interests: Psychology, Schizophrenia, Cognition, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Medicine, and 15 morePrefrontal Cortex, Information Processing, Memory, Problem Solving, Animals, Male, Animal Model, Hallucinogens, Phencyclidine, Rats, Rat, Rat Model, Maze Learning, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests: Psychology, Animal Behavior, Schizophrenia, Cognition, Attention, and 15 moreMedicine, Prefrontal Cortex, Discrimination Learning, Animals, Male, Animal Model, Hallucinogens, Phencyclidine, Rats, Analysis of Variance, Cognitive Function, Maze Learning, Random Allocation, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests: Marketing, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Social Psychology, Communication, and 13 moreVisual perception, Facial expression, Adolescent, Medicine, Affect, Humans, Female, Male, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Emotional Expression, Adult, Facial Action Coding System, and Action (Physics)
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Cats saw an object appear and disappear at two successive locations; the movement of the object from one location to the other was not perceived but was indicated by indirect cues and the two disappearances were separated by a 0-sec or a... more
Cats saw an object appear and disappear at two successive locations; the movement of the object from one location to the other was not perceived but was indicated by indirect cues and the two disappearances were separated by a 0-sec or a 20-sec interval. Performance was poorer with the 0-sec than with the 20-sec interval. With the 0-sec interval, the percentages of search attempts made at the object's initial and final hiding locations did not differ whereas with the 20-sec interval, more search attempts were made at the final than at the initial location. These results provide additional support to Goulet, Dore and Rousseau's (1994) interpretation of cats’ search behaviour in terms of activation of spatial locations in working memory.
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Research Interests: Neuroscience, Aging, Medicine, Hippocampus, Female, and 15 moreAnimals, Male, Conditional Discrimination, Animal Model, Denervation, Neurotoxins, Cognitive impairment, Neural pathways, Memory Disorders, Maze Learning, Neurosciences, Cognition disorders, Hippocampal formation, Avoidance Learning, and Cognitive Deficit
An apparatus was designed in which young Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are rapidly conditioned to reduce heart rate using a chemical-electric shock conditioning procedure. A chemical calibration system permitting eficient stimulus control... more
An apparatus was designed in which young Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are rapidly conditioned to reduce heart rate using a chemical-electric shock conditioning procedure. A chemical calibration system permitting eficient stimulus control is described as well as the ...
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Abstract Threat display in male Siamese fighting fish was studied with respect to two types of water condition: water in which a conspecific had previously performed threat display and water in which conspecifics had been wounded during a... more
Abstract Threat display in male Siamese fighting fish was studied with respect to two types of water condition: water in which a conspecific had previously performed threat display and water in which conspecifics had been wounded during a pair encounter. No effects were ...
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Polymorphisms in the gene encoding the brain serotonin synthesis enzyme Tph2 have been identified in mental illnesses, with co-morbidity of substance use disorder. However, little is known about the impact of Tph2 gene variants on... more
Polymorphisms in the gene encoding the brain serotonin synthesis enzyme Tph2 have been identified in mental illnesses, with co-morbidity of substance use disorder. However, little is known about the impact of Tph2 gene variants on addiction. Mice expressing a human Tph2 loss of function variant were used to investigate consequences of aversive conditions on ethanol intake. Mice were familiarized either with ethanol or a solution containing both ethanol and the bittering agent quinine. Effect of familiarization to ethanol or an ethanol-quinine solution was then evaluated using a two-bottles preference test in Tph2-KI and control littermates. Mice from both genotypes displayed similar levels of ethanol consumption and quinine avoidance when habituated to ethanol alone. In contrast, addition of quinine to ethanol during the familiarization period resulted in a reduction of avoidance for the quinine-ethanol solution only in mutant mice. These results indicate that loss of function mutation in Tph2 results in greater motivation for ethanol consumption under aversive conditions and may confer enhanced sensitivity to alcohol use disorder.
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Résumé Cognition animale et humaine L'analyse comparée de la cognition ou de l'intelligence comptait parmi les préoccupations de Darwin et de ses premiers successeurs, mais elle a été négligée pendant un demi-siècle. Au cours des... more
Résumé Cognition animale et humaine L'analyse comparée de la cognition ou de l'intelligence comptait parmi les préoccupations de Darwin et de ses premiers successeurs, mais elle a été négligée pendant un demi-siècle. Au cours des dernières décennies, trois grandes approches ont été développées: les recherches sur la communication animale, les théories du traitement de l'information et l'approche piagétienne du développement cognrtif des animaux. Même si beaucoup de travail reste à accomplir pour comprendre l'évolution des structures et des processus…