Internship on psychophysics of spatial cognition and aging

Psychophysics of vision-dependent spatial orientation in the elderly (Master 2 project)

The Aging in Vision and Action team aims at investigating the impact of natural visual aging on perceptive and cognitive functions. This project aims at studying how age-related visual impairments (natural degradation of visual acuity, sensibility to contrasts/colours and of the eye field width) impact visual spatial cognition in ecological-like conditions. We will use the Streetlab platform to run a series of psychophysical experiments to assess spatial orientation and navigation performances of young vs. elderly subjects. The Streetlab is a physical reconstruction of an artificial street. It is equipped with a motion capture system and a wearable eye-tracker, which ensures the subject’s behaviour to be fully monitored.

The successful applicant will primarily:

• review the experimental literature on age-related changes in spatial cognitive functions;
• undertake a training on motion capture and eye-tracking techniques;
• run the experiments in the Streetlab;
• perform data analysis.

For further inquiries, please contact Angelo.Arleo@inserm.fr or Marcia.Becu@inserm.fr.

Please click here to learn more and apply.