Jocelyn Faubert
Encyclopedia
Prof. Jocelyn Faubert is a psychophysicist best known for his work in the fields of visual perception
, vision of the elderly, and neuropsychology
. Professor Faubert holds the NSERC-Essilor
Industrial Research Chair in Visual Perception and Presbyopia. He is the director of the Laboratory of Psychophysics and Visual Perception at the University of Montreal. Professor Faubert has also been involved in the award-winnng transfer of research and developments from the laboratory into the commercial domain. He is a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of CogniSens Inc.
Dr. Faubert obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Concordia University
in Montreal, Quebec. Faubert's early work was related to aging, vision
, and glaucoma
. More recently, his work has focused on neuroplasticity
as it relates to visual perception
and cognitive performance.
and visual perception laboratory. He has been director for over 20 years. research areas include:
Over 130 Peer-reviewed articles have resulted from the research conducted at the laboratory, as well as several patents. One of the stated aims of the University of Montreal's laboratory is to develop technologies for use in the society at large; applying research resulting from investigations into aging and perceptual-cognitive performance to the commercial domain.
, fragile x syndrome
, etc.) on visual function. They were able to demonstrate that in the case of autism (unlike fragile x), patients' results are not pathway
-specific, but rather are dependent on the complexity of the neural processing required to perceive the image. Over the course of their studies, Dr. Faubert and colleagues observed autism patients who could significantly outperform the general population at certain visual tasks, and patients who could significantly underperform the general population at the same tasks.
illustrates that temporal differences in luminance processing produce a signal that tricks the motion system.
academic journals. He has been a guest lecturer over 20 times since 2004, including the Joe Brunei Award lecture in recognition for outstanding contributions in Ophthalmic Optics in 2009.
companies.
Between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Faubert and colleagues patented a series of technologies designed to aid in the assessment and intervention of early neurobiological alterations (NBA) such as concussions, dementia, developmental disorders (e.g. autism, fragile x) etc. In 2010, a spin-off company licensed these technologies with a variety of medical and athletic purposes.
In 1999, Dr. Faubert, along with Vasile Diaconu, patented "On-line Spectroreflectometry Oxygenation Measurement in the Eye" (O.S.O.M.E). This development allows doctors to measure a patient's blood oxygen level non-invasively. The device instead is able to check the color of the retinal artery at the back of the eye and render a precise measurement in a matter of seconds. This technology and 2 other related technologies are licensed to a spin-off company that is fabricating new generation retinal cameras for ophthalmologists and optometrists.
In a separate commercial venture, Dr. Faubert's Laboratory has partnered with Univalor (a technology transfer specialist), CogniSens Inc. (a biomedical technology company) and Cognisens Athletics Inc., licensing four technologies related to visual perception and brain function. The aim of this partnership is to commercialize Dr. Faubert's research in the medical and team sports markets. Applications include concussion detection (NeuroMinder C3) and perceptual-cognitive training (NeuroTracker).
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
, vision of the elderly, and neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
. Professor Faubert holds the NSERC-Essilor
Essilor
Essilor International S.A. is a French company that produces ophthalmic lenses along with ophthalmic optical equipment. It is based in Paris, France, and quoted on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange...
Industrial Research Chair in Visual Perception and Presbyopia. He is the director of the Laboratory of Psychophysics and Visual Perception at the University of Montreal. Professor Faubert has also been involved in the award-winnng transfer of research and developments from the laboratory into the commercial domain. He is a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of CogniSens Inc.
Dr. Faubert obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
in Montreal, Quebec. Faubert's early work was related to aging, vision
Vision
Vision or visions may refer to:* Visual perception, interpreting what is seen* Visual system, the sensory mechanism of eyesight* Vision , inspirational experiences* Hallucination, vivid conscious perception in the absence of a stimulus...
, and glaucoma
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye...
. More recently, his work has focused on neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...
as it relates to visual perception
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
and cognitive performance.
Psychophysics and Visual Perception Laboratory
Dr. Faubert oversees the work of over ten masters and doctoral students as well as a team of researchers and post-doctoral fellows in his multidisciplinary psychophysicalPsychophysics
Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, more completely, as "the analysis of perceptual...
and visual perception laboratory. He has been director for over 20 years. research areas include:
- Brain Function
- PerceptionPerceptionPerception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
- Multi-sensory integration
- Neurolobiological Alterations (AutismAutismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, aging, mTBI, StrokeStrokeA stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
amongst others) - Neurological systems
- Biophonics
- NanophotonicsNanophotonicsNanophotonics or Nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale. It is considered as a branch of optical engineering which deals with optics, or the interaction of light with particles or substances, at deeply subwavelength length scales...
- OpticsOpticsOptics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
Over 130 Peer-reviewed articles have resulted from the research conducted at the laboratory, as well as several patents. One of the stated aims of the University of Montreal's laboratory is to develop technologies for use in the society at large; applying research resulting from investigations into aging and perceptual-cognitive performance to the commercial domain.
Technologies
The laboratory makes use of several suites of sophisticated technology to conduct its research:- EON Icube : A Multi-sided immersive environment in which participants are completely surrounded by virtual imagery and 3D sound.
- CAVECave Automatic Virtual EnvironmentA Cave Automatic Virtual Environment is an immersive virtual reality environment where projectors are directed to three, four, five or six of the walls of a room-sized cube...
:The Cave Automatic Virtual Environment is an advanced display system of the size of a room. It combines stereoscopic projection and high-resolution 3D computer graphics to create the illusion of being present in a virtual environment.
- EEGEEGEEG commonly refers to electroencephalography, a measurement of the electrical activity of the brain.EEG may also refer to:* Emperor Entertainment Group, a Hong Kong-based entertainment company...
: the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing of neurons within the brain. EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on the scalp.
- Driving Simulator: An immersive 180° field-of-view screen with simulated rear and side-view mirrors. Used extensively in research into the driving capacity of the elderly.
Laboratory Research populations
The laboratory utilises its 3D technologies and diagnostic equipment to investigate perceptual cognitive issues in various populations: adults, the elderly, children, autistics and those suffering from mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).Research Programs
Using the immersive virtual reality technologies of the laboratory, Professor Faubert and his researchers are able to use custom-made programs in the CAVE, Icube and Driving Simulator to investigate areas of research interest. These include:- Simulated Optic Flow to examine effects on postural reactivity
- Visual Distortion
- Multiple Object Tracking(MOTMotIn Ugaritic Mot 'Death' is personified as a god of death. The word is cognate with forms meaning 'death' in other Semitic and Afro-Asiatic languages: with Arabic موت mawt; with Hebrew מות ; with Maltese mewt; with Syriac mautā; with Ge'ez mot; with Canaanite, Egyptian Aramaic, Nabataean, and...
) programs for testing an individual's ability to track moving objects in their peripheral vision. - Biological Motion PerceptionBiological motionBiological motion is a term used by social and cognitive neuroscientists to refer to the unique visual phenomenon of a moving, animate object. Often, the stimuli used in biological motion experiments are just a few moving dots that reflect the motion of some key joints of the moving organism...
- Motion PerceptionMotion perceptionMotion perception is the process of inferring the speed and direction of elements in a scene based on visual, vestibular and proprioceptive inputs...
- Illusions
Aging and Visual Perception
In a number of studies, Dr. Faubert and colleagues were able to pinpoint the effect of normal aging on visual and perceptual functions. One important study demonstrated that it is not the physical tools of vision which are affected by aging. Rather, it is a loss of computational or processing ability of the brain that ultimately affects visual perception as people age.Development Disorders and Visual Perception
In a number of studies, Dr. Faubert and colleagues examined the impact of developmental disorders (autismAutism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, fragile x syndrome
Fragile X syndrome
Fragile X syndrome , Martin–Bell syndrome, or Escalante's syndrome , is a genetic syndrome that is the most commonly known single-gene cause of autism and the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability...
, etc.) on visual function. They were able to demonstrate that in the case of autism (unlike fragile x), patients' results are not pathway
Neural pathway
A neural pathway, neural tract, or neural face, connects one part of the nervous system with another and usually consists of bundles of elongated, myelin-insulated neurons, known collectively as white matter...
-specific, but rather are dependent on the complexity of the neural processing required to perceive the image. Over the course of their studies, Dr. Faubert and colleagues observed autism patients who could significantly outperform the general population at certain visual tasks, and patients who could significantly underperform the general population at the same tasks.
Illusions
The laboratory engages in research concerning illusions in order to investigate perceptual function. For example, the peripheral drift illusionPeripheral drift illusion
The peripheral drift illusion refers to a motion illusion generated by the presentation of a sawtooth luminance grating in the visual periphery. This illusion was first described by Faubert and Herbert , although a similar effect called the "escalator illusion" was reported by Fraser and Wilcox...
illustrates that temporal differences in luminance processing produce a signal that tricks the motion system.
Mild Perceptual Impairment
Mild Perceptual Impairment (MPI) is a term that covers the deficits in complex perception that accompany reduced cognitive ability in the elderly, those affected by Autism, and also those individuals suffering from mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI). Professor Faubert's recent research has covered the detection of these deficits through detecting distinct "perceptual signatures" as well as through simulated optic flow in a virtual environment, assessing postural reactivity to determine cognitive-perceptual levels.Awards and Honors
Dr. Faubert has received many accolades from the scientific community. He has seven distinct patents registered worldwide. He has acted as a referee for more than 17 peer-reviewedPeer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
academic journals. He has been a guest lecturer over 20 times since 2004, including the Joe Brunei Award lecture in recognition for outstanding contributions in Ophthalmic Optics in 2009.
Patents
Dr. Faubert has been actively engaged in transferring technology from the academic world to the biomedical industry. This has led to seven distinct patents (3 delivered, 4 pending) all of which are licensed to spin-offSpin out
A spin-out, also known as a spin-off or a starburst, refers to a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" sections of itself as a separate business....
companies.
Between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Faubert and colleagues patented a series of technologies designed to aid in the assessment and intervention of early neurobiological alterations (NBA) such as concussions, dementia, developmental disorders (e.g. autism, fragile x) etc. In 2010, a spin-off company licensed these technologies with a variety of medical and athletic purposes.
In 1999, Dr. Faubert, along with Vasile Diaconu, patented "On-line Spectroreflectometry Oxygenation Measurement in the Eye" (O.S.O.M.E). This development allows doctors to measure a patient's blood oxygen level non-invasively. The device instead is able to check the color of the retinal artery at the back of the eye and render a precise measurement in a matter of seconds. This technology and 2 other related technologies are licensed to a spin-off company that is fabricating new generation retinal cameras for ophthalmologists and optometrists.
Technology Transfer
Dr. Faubert and the Visual Perception and Psychophysics Laboratory have been involved in transferring laboratory developments into the commercial domain since 1999. Several funding agencies have been involved in brokering this technology transfer. From the commercial domain, Essilor (an ophthalmic lens company) has partnered with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Together, their aim has been to explore the connection between aging, visual perception, and posture. Dr. Faubert has been a chairholder at the NSERC since 2003, at which time his laboratory received a five-year grant (renewed in 2008).In a separate commercial venture, Dr. Faubert's Laboratory has partnered with Univalor (a technology transfer specialist), CogniSens Inc. (a biomedical technology company) and Cognisens Athletics Inc., licensing four technologies related to visual perception and brain function. The aim of this partnership is to commercialize Dr. Faubert's research in the medical and team sports markets. Applications include concussion detection (NeuroMinder C3) and perceptual-cognitive training (NeuroTracker).
External links
- Jocelyn Faubert (laboratory webpage)
- New Frontier for Perceptual-cognitive Enhancement TEDxMontreal talk with Jocelyn Faubert
- Revolutionary Tool Allows Athlete to React 53% Faster NeuroTracker technology and its application in the sports world
- Virtual Reality brain training improves Athletes’ performance Blog post from Eon Reality Company