For the fourth lecture in the Ouvertures 2025-26 series, Iméra welcomes Philippe Albouy, associate professor at Université Laval and researcher at CERVO and CHU de Québec, whose work focuses on cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuroimaging.
Philippe Albouy | Iméra – Institut d’études avancées d’Aix-Marseille Université
Clinical neuroimaging
The conference has two main themes. The first, rooted in clinical practice, presents the neuroimaging tools – structural and functional MRI, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography – used to assess the anatomical and functional integrity of the brain. Philippe Albouy explains in detail the stereo-electro-encephalography (SEEG) programme developed at the CHU de Québec for the treatment of drug-resistant focal epilepsy: a procedure involving the implantation of deep electrodes aimed at precisely identifying the area responsible for seizures, prior to any surgical resection. Through the testimony of Alexandre, a patient who underwent this surgery in 2023 after years of daily seizures resistant to thirteen lines of drug treatment, the speaker illustrates in concrete terms the impact that this research can have on patients’ lives.
AI and neuroscience research
The second area concerns the integration of artificial intelligence into neuroscience research practices. Philippe Albouy emphasises that these tools are used in his laboratory not as generative systems, but as advanced statistical methods for detecting brain activity profiles that conventional approaches would not identify. Recent work by other teams – notably on the partial reconstruction of mental images from MRI signals, and on the restoration of walking in paraplegic patients using spinal implants coupled with learning algorithms – illustrates both the current advances and limitations in the field. The conference concludes with a discussion with the audience on the ethical and epistemological issues raised by AI and open science in neuroscience, moderated by Daniel Schoen, the evening’s discussant.
To find out more about Philippe Albouy’s research project at Iméra, visit his resident page: below:
Albouy Philippe
Philippe Albouy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZihJZ_xxGY https://www.imera.fr/agenda/cerveau-ia-science-ouverte/ Projet de recherche Dynamique multimodale et multi-échelle de la perception et de la mémoire de la parole et de la musique Résumé du projet Le langage et la… Read more
