Bourgin Jessica

Thesis

Functional repercussions of amygdala atrophy on emotional attention in Alzheimer’s disease : dissociation between automatic and controlled processes

Advisors : Pascal Hot & Laetitia Silvert

Keywords : emotion, amygdala, emotional processing, normal aging, Alzheimer’s disease

Link : Thesis

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative pathology involving large brain alterations and the emergence of cognitive and behavioral symptoms that impair daily life. Even now, AD is difficult to diagnose precisely, notably because of the low-specificity of its main characteristics (i.e., memory symptoms and hippocampal atrophy). The systematic assessment of brain alterations that occur during the first stages of AD showed the existence of amygdala atrophy, which could lead to disruptions in emotional processing. In this thesis, we conducted paradigms involving emotional attention, in other words attentional processes directed toward emotional or neutral stimuli, which may be disrupted in patients with amygdala lesions. We conducted two eye-tracking paradigms (i.e., eye movements recording) involving visual search and pro-saccade/anti-saccade tasks to get a fine analysis of attentional processes. The results of these two studies suggest that patients with AD present alterations of early emotional attention, which is involved in facilitating orienting toward emotional information. Using a neuroimaging analysis of structural and functional connectivity, we highlighted alterations in neural networks (including the amygdala) involved in attentional and emotional processes. Finally, we present the preliminary results of a neuroimaging study specifically exploring correlations between emotional attention processes and alterations in the corresponding neural network. Our data highlight (a) the presence of distinctive emotional attention deficits in patients with AD, which could help sharpen the diagnosis of this pathology, and (b) alterations in a large neural network including notably the amygdala, which may explain our behavioral data.

Scientific collaborations

GIPSA-lab, Grenoble : Nathalie Guyader, PhD.

Cellule de NeuroImagerie Fonctionnelle, plateforme IRMaGe, CHU de Grenoble : Emilie Cousin, PhD, Cédric Pichat.

Unité de Neuropsychologie - Pole de Psychiatrie et Neurologie, Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche, Grenoble : Drs. Olivier Moreaud, Mathilde Sauvée & Alexandra Juphard.

CHU Saint-Etienne, Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche : Céline Borg, PhD.

Education

2016-2019 : Doctoral studies in cognitive sciences and neuropsychology (grant from ADR project, ARC 2 "Qualité de vie et vieillissement")

2016 : Master Research in Neuropsychology, Grenoble-Alpes University, Grenoble, France

2014 : Master Research in Cognitive and Social Psychology, Pierre-Mendès France University, Grenoble, France

2011 : Bachelor in psychology, Pierre-Mendès France University, Grenoble, France

Teaching : 2016-2020

Academic work methodology : Tutorial classes (1st year), 56h

Statistics : Tutorial classes (1st year), 45h

Experimental methodology : Tutorial classes (1st year), 18h

Neurophysiology : Tutorial classes (3rd year), 10h

Emotion & cognition : Lecture (4th year), 6h

External links

Github
Personal website
OpenScience Framework
ResearchGate

Research interests

1. Normal and pathological aging (Alzheimer’s disease)
2. Emotional attention
3. Diffusion and functional MRI
4. Eye-tracking

Publications

• Lavest M, Bourgin J, Lafay A (2025). Validation d'une version française du NADL-F : mesure de l'impact dans l’utilisation financière au quotidien chez des adultes avec des difficultés en mathématiques. Glossa, 143. https://doi.org/10.61989/6byw4k71 
• Propice K, Pellissier S, Bourgin J, Chancel M, Carron R, Atzeni T, & Metral M (2024). Morphological changes and body representation : A study of the link between weight cycling and body schema disturbances. Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 34(4), 100507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbct.2024.100507
• Bry C, Propice K, Bourgin J, Métral M. Social cognition, psychosocial development and well-being in galactosemia. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2024 Sep 6;19(1):325. doi: 10.1186/s13023-024-03335-2. PMID: 39243040; PMCID: PMC11378408.
• Boucher JD, Bourgin J, Lassiaz J, Propice K, Metral M. The impact of weight and negative body image on the body schema in undergraduate women. Exp Brain Res. 2024 Jun;242(6):1373-1385. doi: 10.1007/s00221-024-06827-6. Epub 2024 Apr 2. PMID: 38565782.
• Dupraz L, Bourgin J, Pia L, Barra J, Guerraz M. Body ownership and kinaesthetic illusions: Dissociated bodily experiences for distinct levels of body consciousness? Conscious Cogn. 2024 Jan;117:103630. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103630. Epub 2024 Jan 5. PMID: 38183843.
• New B, Bourgin J, Barra J, Pallier C. UniPseudo: A universal pseudoword generator. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2024 Feb;77(2):278-286. doi: 10.1177/17470218231164373. Epub 2023 Apr 18. PMID: 36891822.
• Gardette J, Bourgin J, Moreaud O, Cousin E, Hot P. Evidencing representational specialisation of the anterior hippocampus and perirhinal cortex across memory and non-memory operations. Brain Cogn. 2023 Aug;170:106025. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106025.
• Bourgin, J, Silvert, L, Hot, P. Altérations amygdaliennes dans la maladie d’Alzheimer : quelles répercussions ?. Revue de neuropsychologie. 2023;15(1):17-24. doi:10.1684/nrp.2023.0741
• Gardette J, Cousin E, Bourgin J, Torlay L, Pichat C, Moreaud O, Hot P. Hippocampal activity during memory and visual perception: The role of representational content. Cortex. 2022 Dec;157:14-29. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.09.004. Epub 2022 Sep 28. PMID: 36272329.
• Dupraz L, Bourgin J, Giroux M, Barra J, Guerraz M. Involvement of visual signals in kinaesthesia: A virtual reality study. Neurosci Lett. 2022 Aug 24;786:136814. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2022.136814. Epub 2022 Jul 22. PMID: 35878656.
• Bourgin J, Silvert L, Borg C, Morand A, Sauvée M, Moreaud O, Hot P. Impact of emotionally negative information on attentional processes in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Brain Cogn. 2020 Nov;145:105624. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105624. Epub 2020 Sep 12. PMID: 32932107.
• Bourgin J, Guyader N, Chauvin A, Juphard A, Sauvée M, Moreaud O, Silvert L, Hot P. Early Emotional Attention is Impacted in Alzheimer's Disease: An Eye-Tracking Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;63(4):1445-1458. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180170. PMID: 29782325.
• Kauffmann L, Bourgin J, Guyader N, Peyrin C. The Neural Bases of the Semantic Interference of Spatial Frequency-based Information in Scenes. J Cogn Neurosci. 2015 Dec;27(12):2394-405. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00861. Epub 2015 Aug 5. PMID: 26244724.

Posters

• Bourgin, J., Silvert, L., & Hot, P. (2018). Do patients with Alzheimer’s disease still have a crush on crashes ? Emotional attention in pathological aging. Journée Scientifique de l’EDISCE, Mai 31, Grenoble, France.
• Bourgin, J., Morand, A., Cronenberger, L., Hajjam, N., Sauvée, M., Moreaud, O., Silvert, L., & Hot, P. (2018). Impact of emotionally negative information on engagement and disengagement processes in aging : a visual search paradigm in eye-tracking. The Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), April 4-5, Glasgow, Scotland.
• Bourgin, J., Oliva, S., Guyader, N., Chauvin, A., Juphard, A., Sauvée, M., Moreaud, O., & Hot, P. (2016). Attentional capture by emotional information in Alzheimer’s disease : automatic and motivational processes. Annual Meeting of the Société de Psychologie et de Neurosciences Cognitives on "Emotional Brain and Pathology", September 29-30, Lille, France.
• Bourgin, J., Chauvin, A., Guyader, N., Juphard, A., Sauvée, M., Moreaud, O., & Hot, P. (2016). Attentional capture by emotional information in Alzheimer’s disease. 18th World Congress of Psychophysiology, August 31-September 4, Havana, Cuba.
• Bourgin, J., Guyader, N., Chauvin, A., Juphard, A., Sauvée, M., Moreaud, O., & Hot, P. (2016). Processus attentionnels dans la pathologie d’Alzheimer : où est passée l’émotion ? Colloque du Groupe de Réflexion en Psychopathologie Cognitive, Juin 9-10, Chambéry, France.
• Bourgin, J., Maire, C., Kauffmann, L., Chauvin, A., Guyader, N., & Peyrin, C. (2012). Comparisons of static and dynamic paradigms to investigate the Coarse-to-Fine categorization of scenes. European Conference on Visual Processing, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy.

Oral communications

• Bourgin, J., Morand, A., Sauvée, M., Moreaud, O., Silvert, L., & Hot, P. (2018). Influence d’une information émotionnelle négative sur les processus d’engagement et de désengagement dans la Maladie d’Alzheimer : un paradigme de recherche visuelle en eye-tracking. Journées d’Etude du Vieillissement, Mars 5-6, Chambéry, France.
• Bourgin, J., Hot, P., & Silvert, L. (2017). Attention émotionnelle dans la Maladie d’Alzheimer : approche en oculométrie. Séminaire invité, Juillet 6, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
• Hot P., Bourgin, J. (2016). Contribution of affective neuroscience to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. 18th World Congress of Psychophysiology, September 1-4, La Havane, Cuba.

CV