Lab Manager & Research fellow
Background:
I hold a bachelor degree in Communication Science, a master’s degree in Life Science and Technology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland). During my thesis, conducted at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, led by Prof. Olaf Blanke, I studied the functional mechanisms of specific aspects of bodily self-consciousness; the sensation that the body we occupy belongs to us (body ownership), that we are located somewhere in space (self-location) and that we are directed at the world (first-person perspective). Furthermore, I was interested in whether and how these “high-level” aspects compare to behavioral and neural mechanisms of “low-level” multisensory integration specifically within the peripersonal space. To this aim, I employed multisensory bodily illusions inspired from experimental psychology coupled with psychophysics, electric vestibular stimulation, functional magnetic resonance imaging (3T and 7T), virtual reality and MR-compatible robotics.
I have joined the MySpace lab in March 2018 where I currently act as the lab manager and coordinate, in parallel, the Neuroscape@NeuroTech research platform for clinical neuroscience at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV). I am currently involved in several research projects whose aims are (1) assessing the immunological behavioral and biological responses triggered by exposure to pathogen-carrying faces in virtual reality, (2) assessing the potential of using adaptive physical and cognitive training in immersive video games for cognitive rehabilitation in patients with multiple sclerosis and (3) validating a novel tablet-based cognitive assessment tool against gold-standard neuropsychological examinations for quantifying memory impairments.
Research:
I am currently involved in several publicly and privately-funded collaborative academic and industrial projects to design, develop and validate computerized gamified tools for the evaluation and rehabilitation of cognitive function in patient populations suffering from cognitive deficits (multiple sclerosis, dementia/Alzheimer, traumatic brain injury, stroke, HIV, …).
Publications
- Grivaz, P., Serino, A., Gazzaley, A., & Sokolov AA. (2019). Virtual reality and serious games for cognitive neurorehabilitation. Leading Opinions: Neurologie & Psychiatrie, 6(5), 15-17.
- Bréchet, L., Grivaz, P., Gautier, B., & Blanke, O. (2018) Common recruitement of angular gyrus in episodic autobiographical memory and bodily self-consciousness. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12:270.
- Sokolov, A., Grivaz, P., & Bove, R. (2018) Cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis: recent advances in treatment and rehabilitation. Current Treatment Options in Neurology, 20:53
- Grivaz, P., Blanke, O., & Serino, A. (2017) Common and distinct brain regions processing multisensory bodily signals for peripersonal space and body ownership. NeuroImage, 147(iii), 602-618.
- Grivaz, P.*, Pfeiffer, C.*, Herbelin, B., Serino, A., & Blanke, O. (2016) Visual gravity contribution to subjective first-person perspective. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 1, 1-12. *authors contributed equally
- Kaliuzhna, M., Vibert, D., Grivaz, P., & Blanke, O. (2015) Out-of-body experiences and other complex dissociation experiences in a patient with unilateral peripheral vestibular damage and deficient multisensory integration. Multisensory Research, 28, 613-635.
- Noel, J.-P., Grivaz, P., Marmaroli, P., Lissek, H., Blanke, O. & Serino, A. (2014). Full body action remapping of peripersonal space: the case of walking. Neuropsychologia, 70, 1-10.
petr.grivaz@chuv.ch
petr.grivaz@gmail.com