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When participants engage twice in the same creative problem-solving task with educational robots, they have the possibility to repeat the same solution, allowing them to complete the task faster, or to show a creative intention and behavior, engaging them in developing a new solution. In this study, we aim to analyze the creative process considering the creative intention and the persistence in the creative process. For this purpose, we engaged 115 adults to perform twice the same problem-solving task using modular robotic cubes without specific instruction concerning the way to solve the task the second time. Creative intention is observed when the participant tests a new solution in the beginning of the second realization of the task, creative persistence behavior is show when participant stay engaged in a new plan although it requires time and efforts. Results show that participants’ effective creative solution is related to their creative intention and the time engaged in the second occurrence of the educational robotic task (assessing the creative behavior persistence). These results suggest that the creative process leading to an effective creative solution in a repeated task requires an initial creative intention, but also a higher creative behavior persistence than engaging in a conservative behavior.

Lorsque nous regardons une scene visuelle, nous avons acces a un ensemble d’informations parmi lesquelles les contenus semantiques et emotionnels ont un role majeur pour la comprehension et l’adaptation a l’environnement physique et social. Il a egalement ete decrit que les associations entre des contenus de niveau « local » (les objets de premier plan) et de niveau « global » (le contexte, d’arriere-plan) permettent a l’observateur de categoriser rapidement la scene. Or, nous avons mis en evidence, par la realisation de trois revues critiques de litterature, une quasi absence de prise en compte de l’interaction des dimensions semantique et emotionnelle lors de la categorisation visuelle de l’objet et du contexte d’une scene visuelle. Nous avons analyse les traitements semantiques et emotionnels, ainsi que leurs eventuelles interactions, grâce au paradigme de presentation visuelle rapide, dans une serie de quatre etudes. Dans chacune, deux images (un objet et un contexte) apparaissaient rapidement hors de la vision foveale. L’etude 1 a analyse l’effet de coherence semantique qui decrit des performances de categorisation de l’objet et du contexte d’une scene visuelle superieures lorsque les images sont presentees en situation de coherence semantique (i.e., selon une relation fortement cooccurrente comme un cochon et une ferme) plutot qu’en situation d’incoherence (e.g., un cochon et une banquise). Cette etude a mis en evidence que les associations semantiques entre objet et contexte se realisent au stade de mise en correspondance entre un percept et une representation en memoire a long terme. L’etude 2 a analyse les relations entre traitements semantiques et emotionnels en proposant une tâche de categorisation du contenu semantique et une tâche de categorisation du contenu emotionnel d’une image neutre ou emotionnelle (positive ou negative). Cette image, de niveau local (objet) ou global (contexte), etait presentee en condition de coherence ou d’incoherence semantique et emotionnelle (i.e., porteuse du meme contenu emotionnel ou non) avec une image de l’autre niveau (objet ou contexte). Cette etude suggere l’existence de traitements semantiques et emotionnels quelle que soit la tâche de l’observateur, et la presence d’interactions entre ces traitements, et entre l’objet et le contexte de la scene visuelle, variant en fonction des contraintes. Dans l’etude 3 nous avons analyse le developpement de ces traitements aupres d’enfants scolarises en primaire et replique les resultats obtenus chez l’adulte, a l’exception de l’effet de coherence semantique, qui semble ainsi dependre de la quantite des experiences de vie. Enfin, l’etude 4 a analyse ces phenomenes aupres d’enfants qui presentent un Trouble Deficitaire de l’Attention avec ou sans Hyperactivite (TDA/H), condition a laquelle sont frequemment associes des difficultes de reconnaissance et de gestion des emotions. Cette derniere etude a montre un traitement des emotions preserve lors d’une presentation visuelle rapide, malgre de plus faibles performances de categorisation semantique du groupe TDA/H comparativement au groupe controle. Ces resultats suggerent que le defaut de traitement des emotions releve dans le TDA/H ne dependrait pas de la prise initiale des informations, mais serait cause par un dysfonctionnement plus tardif dans la chaine de traitements qui permet la prise de decision, probablement lie a un deficit attentionnel. D’autres recherches devront explorer si ce deficit provient d’un defaut des capacites d’attention soutenue ou de desengagement des informations emotionnelles. Au total, l’ensemble de ces resultats nous permet de decrire un modele dynamique de la perception visuelle dans lequel les traitements semantiques et emotionnels suivent des trajectoires developpementales asynchrones et dont la priorisation d’une dimension de traitement sur une autre n’est pas preetablie, mais varie en fonction des contraintes liees a l’environnement et a l’observateur.

Nous avons la capacite de reconnaitre tres rapidement une scene visuelle, meme presentee un tres court instant. Cette capacite concerne le sens de la scene mais egalement l’emotion qu’elle vehicule. Cette revue critique presentera d’abord une synthese des principales recherches menees sur les traitements des contenus semantiques, puis sur les traitements des contenus emotionnels lors de la perception des scenes. Il s’agira de mieux comprendre comment ces informations sont selectionnees et representees, et comment elles influencent l’exploration visuelle, contribuant ainsi a la rapidite du traitement de la scene. Nous questionnerons ensuite les eventuelles interactions entre les traitements semantiques et emotionnels. Cette revue met en exergue l’importance des liens semantiques et emotionnels entre les differents constituants d’une scene et le caractere dynamique, integratif de la perception visuelle. Elle suggere egalement divers futurs axes de recherche.

Visual categorization improves when object-context associations in scenes are semantically consistent, thus predictable from schemas stored in long-term memory. However, it is unclear whether this is due to differences in early perceptual processing, in matching of memory representations or in later stages of response selection. We tested these three concurrent explanations across five experiments. At each trial, participants had to categorize a scene context and an object briefly presented within the same image (Experiment 1), or separately in simultaneous images (Experiments 2–5). We analyzed unilateral (Experiments 1, 3) and bilateral presentations (Experiments 2, 4, 5), and presentations on the screen’s horizontal midline (Experiments 1–2) and in the upper and lower visual fields (Experiments 3, 4). In all the experiments, we found a semantic consistency advantage for both context categorization and object categorization. This shows that the memory for object-context semantic associations is activated regardless of whether these two scene components are integrated in the same percept. Our study suggests that the facilitation effect of semantic consistency on categorization occurs at the stage of matching the percept with previous knowledge, supporting the object selection account and extending this framework to an object-context reciprocal influence on matching processes (object-context selection account).

In addition to brain disorders, which constitute a devastating consequence of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), eye development is also significantly affected. Given that the retina is a readily accessible part of the central nervous system, a better understanding of the impact of ethanol on retinal development might provide ophthalmological landmarks helpful for early diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome. This study aimed to provide a fine morphometric and cellular characterization of the development of retinal microvasculature and neurovascular interactions in a mouse model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The data revealed that PAE impaired superficial vascular plexus development. In particular, progression of the vascular migration front was significantly decreased in PAE retinas, supporting a delay in plexus progression. Moreover, a significant decrease in the vessel density and number of perforating vessels was quantified in PAE mice, supporting less angiogenesis. The present study provides also the first evidence of a close interaction between migrating calretinin-positive interneurons and perforating microvessels in the inner nuclear layer of the developing retina. This neurovascular association was significantly impaired by PAE. Moreover, projections of amacrine cells were abnormally distributed and densified in stratum S1 and S2. In humans, comparison of a five-month-old control infant with a three-month-old alcohol-exposed case revealed a similar mispositioning of calretinin-positive interneurons. This opens new research avenues regarding a neurovascular contribution in the deleterious effects of alcohol in the developing retina and support that ophthalmological examination could become a promising approach for early detection of alcohol-exposed infants presenting with neurovascular brain defects.

International audience; Only 400 km off the coast of East Africa, the island of Madagascar is one of the last large land masses to have been colonized by humans. While many questions surround the human occupation of Madagascar, recent studies raise the question of human impact on endemic biodiversity and landscape transformation. Previous genetic and linguistic analyses have shown that the Malagasy population has emerged from an admixture that happened during the last millennium, between Bantu-speaking African populations and Austronesianspeaking Asian populations. By studying the sharing of chromosome segments between individuals (IBD determination), local ancestry information and simulated genetic data, we inferred that the Malagasy ancestral Asian population was isolated for more than 1000 years with an effective size of just a few hundred individuals. This isolation ended around 1000 years before present (BP) by admixture with a small African population. Around the admixture time, there was a rapid demographic expansion due to intrinsic population growth of the newly admixed population, which coincides with extensive changes in Madagascar’s landscape and the extinction of all endemic large-bodied vertebrates. Therefore, our approach can provide new insights into past human demography and associated impacts on ecosystems

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

"Impairments in emotional information processing are frequently reported in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at a voluntary, explicit level (e.g., emotion recognition) and at an involuntary, implicit level (e.g., emotional interference). Most of previous studies have used faces with emotional expressions, rarely examining other important sources of information usually co-occurring with faces in our every day experience. Here, we examined how the emotional content of an entire visual scene depicting real-world environments and situations is processed in ADHD. We systematically reviewed in PubMed, SCOPUS and ScienceDirect, using the PRISMA guidelines, empirical studies published in English until March 2019, about processing of visual scenes, with or without emotional content, in children and adolescents with ADHD. We included 17 studies among the 154 initially identified. Fifteen used scenes with emotional content (which was task-relevant in seven and irrelevant in eight studies) and two used scenes without emotional content. Even though the interpretation of the results differed according to the theoretical model of emotions of the study and the presence of comorbidity, differences in scene information processing between ADHD and typically developing children and adolescents were reported in all but one study. ADHD children and adolescents show difficulties in the processing of emotional information conveyed by visual scenes, which may stem from a stronger bottom-up impact of emotional stimuli in ADHD, increasing the emotional experience, and from core deficits of the disorder, decreasing the overall processing of the scene".

National audience; L’hyperphagie transitoire lors de la consommation d’un régime de type occidental est nécessaire au contrôle de l’endotoxémie métabolique à moyen terme chez le rat. 34. Congrès du club d'étude des cellules épithéliales digestives (CECED)

International audience; Obesity and its related disorders have been associated with the presence in the blood of gut bacteria-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS). However, the factors underlying this low-grade elevation in plasma LPS, so-called metabolic endotoxemia, are not fully elucidated. We aimed to investigate the effects of Western diet (WD) feeding on intestinal and hepatic LPS handling mechanisms in a rat model of diet-induced obesity (DIO). Rats were fed either a standard chow diet (C) or a Western Diet (WD, 45% fat) for 6 wk. They were either fed ad libitum or pair-fed to match the caloric intake of C rats for the first week, then fed ad libitum for the remaining 5 wk. Six-week WD feeding led to a mild obese phenotype with increased adiposity and elevated serum LPS-binding protein (LBP) levels relative to C rats, irrespective of initial energy intake. Serum LPS was not different between dietary groups but exhibited strong variability. Disrupted ileal mucus secretion and decreased ileal Reg3-γ and -β gene expression along with high ileal permeability to LPS were observed in WD compared with C-fed rats. Ileal and cecal intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) activity as well as Verrucomicrobia and Bifidobacterium cecal levels were increased in WD-fed rats compared with C-fed rats. WD consumption did not impact mRNA levels of LPS-handling hepatic enzymes. Correlation analysis revealed that ileal passage of LPS, IAP activity, Proteobacteria levels and hepatic aoah gene expression correlated with serum LPS and LBP, suggesting that ileal mucosal defense impairment induced by WD feeding contribute to metabolic endotoxemia.