Laboratoire Mémoire Cerveau et Cognition (LMC2)Boulogne-BillancourtNon précisé
Individual and Shared Memory in Virtual Reality: fNIRS Hyperscanning
From Incidental Encoding to Eyewitness Testimony
Laboratory: LMC² – UR 7536, Université Paris Cité
Virtualia: Immersive Virtual Reality Platform
Location: Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France
Duration: 5–6 months
Starting date: As soon as possible in 2027
Project: NeuroPsyVR2
How is the memory of the same event formed when it is experienced alone versus shared with another person? When two individuals experience the same event together, is inter-brain synchrony associated with the formation of similar memories—or with the subsequent divergence of their accounts?
The LMC² laboratory at Université Paris Cité is seeking a motivated Master’s/M2 student interested in working at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, episodic memory, immersive virtual reality, fNIRS, and neural signal analysis. The internship is part of the NeuroPsyVR2 project and focuses on the formation of episodic memories under immersive and ecologically relevant conditions. Using the Virtualia immersive virtual reality platform, the experimental setup makes it possible to compare the encoding of the same type of event when it is experienced alone or together with another participant in a shared virtual environment. Participants will encounter a salient incidental event, such as a simulated crime scene, without explicit instructions to memorize it. Their subsequent memory and eyewitness accounts will then be assessed. In the shared condition, the brain activity of both participants will be recorded simultaneously using fNIRS hyperscanning, allowing us to investigate both individual neural dynamics and inter-brain synchrony during the encoding of a shared experience. The project will specifically examine whether inter-brain synchrony during the event is associated with the subsequent convergence or divergence of participants’ memories and eyewitness accounts.
This work builds on the immersive virtual-reality episodic-memory paradigms developed at LMC², which provide a framework for investigating memory encoding and retrieval under conditions that more closely approximate real-life autobiographical experience than conventional laboratory paradigms (Lenormand & Piolino, 2022; Penaud et al., 2022, 2023; Lenormand et al., 2024; see also Kisker et al., 2021).
The project therefore opens an original avenue for investigating the social and interactive dimensions of episodic memory, which remain relatively unexplored under naturalistic conditions. It is also conducted within the framework of a scientific collaboration with the French forensic police (Police scientifique) focusing on eyewitness memory, memory accuracy, and the factors that may contribute to convergence, divergence, or distortion in eyewitness testimony.
The successful candidate will be involved in the different stages of the project, from experimental setup to data processing and analysis:
Candidate profile
We welcome applications from Master’s/M2 students in:
Expected skills
Compensation: The internship includes the statutory internship allowance, in accordance with French regulations.
Continuation into a PhD may be considered following the Master’s internship, subject to successful selection through a doctoral funding competition and the availability of doctoral funding.
Please send a CV and a short motivation letter to:
Project Director and Scientific Supervisor
Prof. Pascale Piolino — Director of LMC², Université Paris Cité
pascale.piolino@u-pariscite.fr
Scientific and Technical Supervision
Hasan-Onur Keles — fNIRS Engineer
hasan-onur.keles@u-pariscite.fr
Éric Orriols — VR and Psychophysiology Engineer
eric.orriols@u-pariscite.fr
Selected references
Balters, S., Baker, J. M., Hawthorne, G., & Reiss, A. L. (2020). Capturing human interaction in the virtual age: A perspective on the future of fNIRS hyperscanning. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 588494. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.588494
Barde, A., Gumilar, I., Hayati, A. F., Dey, A., Lee, G., & Billinghurst, M. (2020). A review of hyperscanning and its use in virtual environments. Informatics, 7(4), 55. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics7040055
Czeszumski, A., Eustergerling, S., Lang, A., Menrath, D., Gerstenberger, M., Schuberth, S., Schreiber, F., Zuluaga Rendon, Z., & König, P. (2020). Hyperscanning: A valid method to study neural inter-brain underpinnings of social interaction. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 39. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00039
Kisker, J., Gruber, T., & Schöne, B. (2021). Virtual reality experiences promote autobiographical retrieval mechanisms: Electrophysiological correlates of laboratory and virtual experiences. Psychological Research, 85, 2485–2501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01417-x
Lenormand, D., & Piolino, P. (2022). In search of a naturalistic neuroimaging approach: Exploration of general feasibility through the case of VR-fMRI and application in the domain of episodic memory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 133, 104499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.12.022
Lenormand, D., Mentec, I., Gaston-Bellegarde, A., Orriols, E., & Piolino, P. (2024). Decoding episodic autobiographical memory in naturalistic virtual reality. Scientific Reports, 14, 25639. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76944-3
Penaud, S., Jebara, N., Zaoui, M., Orriols, E., Berthoz, A., & Piolino, P. (2022). Episodic memory and self-reference in a naturalistic context: New insights based on a virtual walk in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101801
Penaud, S., Yeh, D., Gaston-Bellegarde, A., & Piolino, P. (2023). The role of bodily self-consciousness in episodic memory of naturalistic events: An immersive virtual reality study. Scientific Reports, 13, 17013. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43823-2