Sonja BanjacUniversité Grenoble Alpes
Sonja Banjac
PhD Cognitive Neuroscience
About
30
Publications
5,144
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92
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am currently doing my post-doc at Laboratoire de Psychologie & NeuroCognition, Universite Grenoble Alpes, France. My work is mostly in the domain of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. Specifically, I am interested in studying the reorganization of language and memory in patients with pharmaco-resistent temporal lobe epilepsy. In doing so, I am focusing on the dynamic interaction of these two functions.
Publications
Publications (30)
Current theoretical frameworks suggest that human behaviors are based on strong and complex interactions between cognitive processes such as those underlying language and memory functions in normal and neurological populations. We were interested in assessing the dynamic cerebral substrate of such interaction between language and declarative memory...
We present an application of a non-linear manifold learning for fMRI data with the aim of exploring the abnormal patterns of activations within high-dimensional language and memory network in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The presented approach can be very useful for small sample or single case studies.
Previous research showed that mental rumination, considered as a form of repetitive and negative inner speech, is associated with increased facial muscular activity. However, the relation between these muscular activations and the underlying mental processes is still unclear. In this study, we tried to disentangle the facial electromyographic corre...
Previous studies have highlighted the importance of considering cognitive functions from a dynamic and interactive perspective and multiple evidence was brought for a language and memory interaction. In this study performed with healthy participants, we present a new protocol entitled GE2REC that interactively accesses the neural representation of...
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) affects the brain networks at several levels and patients suffering from mTLE experience cognitive impairment for language and memory. Considering the importance of language and memory reorganization in this condition, the present study explores changes of the embedded language‐and‐memory network (LMN) in terms...
Preoperative mapping of language and declarative memory functions in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients is essential since they frequently encounter deterioration of these functions and show variable degrees of cerebral reorganization. Due to growing evidence on language and declarative memory interdependence at a neural and neuropsychological l...
Current theoretical frameworks suggest that human behaviors are based on strong and complex interactions between cognitive processes such as those underlying language and declarative memory that are supported by the interaction between underlying cortical networks. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) present a model for studying the interact...
The field of neurocognition is currently undergoing a significant change of perspective. Traditional neurocognitive models evolved into an integrative and dynamic vision of cognitive functioning. Dynamic integration assumes an interaction between cognitive domains traditionally considered to be distinct. Language and declarative memory are regarded...
By assessing the cognitive capital, neuropsychological evaluation (NPE) plays a vital role in the perioperative workup of patients with refractory focal epilepsy. In this retrospective study, we used cutting-edge statistical approaches to examine a group of 47 patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), who underwent standard anterior te...
The field of neurocognition is currently undergoing a significant change of perspective. Traditional neurocognitive models evolved into an integrative and dynamic vision of cognitive functioning. Dynamic integration assumes an interaction between cognitive domains traditionally considered to be distinct. Language and declarative memory are regarded...
The article Interactive mapping of language and memory with the GE2REC protocol, written by Sonja Banjac, Elise Roger, Emilie Cousin, Marcela Perrone-Bertolotti, Célise Haldin, Cédric Pichat, Laurent Lamalle, Lorella Minotti, Philippe Kahane, and Monica Baciu was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal on August 06, 2...
In the absence of any neuropsychiatric condition, older adults may show declining performance in several cognitive processes and among them, in retrieving and producing words, reflected in slower responses and even reduced accuracy compared to younger adults. To overcome this difficulty, healthy older adults implement compensatory strategies, which...
Previous research showed that mental rumination, considered as a form of repetitive and negative inner speech, is associated with increased facial muscular activity. However, the relation between these muscular activations and the underlying mental processes is still unclear. In this study, we tried to separate the facial electromyographic correlat...
The main focus of this paper is the relationship between the teachers' practice in Serbian language (reading) classes and student achievement on PISA tasks. Specifically, in an effort to examine this relationship, we focused on the link between the students' PISA achievements and the strategies teachers use to engage the students during the reading...
The extent and spatial location of white matter (WM) MRI abnormalities are related to distinct cognitive profiles in epilepsy [1]. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) appears, in addition, clinically relevant to predict the surgical outcomes in intractable forms, notably in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) [2]. However, dMRI metrics remain complex to analyze and are...
Language is a highly integrative process that recruits a complex array of both low and high-ordered functional systems [1]. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) hold great promise to characterize the organization of cognitive networks [2]. However, rs-fMRI only provide a partial view of the language architecture. Task-based fMRI, on the other hand, can rel...
We aimed to identify cognitive signatures (phenotypes) of patients suffering from mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) with respect to their epilepsy lateralization (left or right), through the use of SVM (Support Vector Machine) and XGBoost (eXtreme Gradient Boosting) machine learning (ML) algorithms. Specifically, we explored the ability of the t...
COVER ILLUSTRATION Representation of a resting‐state fMRI map projected on a 3D brain render and on which is affixed/anchored a correlation matrix derived from resting‐state fMRI data, serving as the basis for assessing functional connectivity.
Previous studies have highlighted the importance of considering cognitive functions in a dynamic and interactive perspective and multiple evidence was brought for a language and memory interaction. In this study performed in healthy participants, we developed a new protocol entitled GE2REC that interactively accesses the neural representation of th...
In patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the benefit of temporal surgery must be carefully evaluated taking into consideration the risk of inducing the impairments since surgery can lead to postoperative memory and language deficits. Considering that mesial temporal regions are implied in both of these processes, it should be essential to eva...
This study investigated trait EI in childhood in a Serbian population by
validating a Serbian adaptation of the Trait Emotional Intelligence
Questionnaire - Child Form (TEIQue-CF). All 606 participants (Mage = 10.33,
SD = 1.55) completed the TEIQue-CF, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test
(revised version), and the Guess Who peer assessment. Data...
This paper explored the relationship between attachment, mentalization, and intelligence as it occurs in adolescence. Study participants were 345 students (123 males) in their third year of high school. Participants were administered three standard tests of intelligence, the SM-ECR-R, and the recently developed Mentalization Questionnaire (MQ). The...
Projects
Project (1)
The main goal of the REORG project is to assess preoperative and postoperative language and memory neuroplasticity in patients with pharmaco-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) by using a multidisciplinary and multimodal neuroimaging approach. Specifically, this project will take into account cognitive scores, as well as the biomarkers of multimodal neuroimaging: fMRI activity, resting-state fMRI functional connectivity, DTI anatomical connectivity and stereo EEG. This multidisciplinary approach will allow examining the efficiency of reorganization in TLE and their synthesis will be the base for creating a tool for prediction of clinical and cognitive post-surgical outcomes. As a part of REORG project, my thesis will focus on the dynamic interaction between language and memory and their common neural systems. In particular, the intention is to explore what are the regions that constitute the language-and-memory network and how are they functionally connected. Importantly, the focus will be on TLE patients since these patients have both functions imperilled which will allow us to explore if the traces of cerebral reorganization of this language-and-memory network. Additionally, neuropsychological data will also be included in order to test the efficacy of the possible reorganization in patients. Finally, we will explore whether this joint network can help us predict better post-surgical reorganization.
Methods: task-fMRI, BOLD functional connectivity, neuropsychological assessment, machine learning
