The Academy of sciences has awarded, on November 22, the Lamonica Price of Neurology to Professor Lionel Naccache (UPMC, AP-HP), team leader at the Institut du Cerveau - ICM. This award represents the funding of two years of post-doctoral work.
Lionel Naccache, University Professor, hospital practitioner, head of the clinical neurophysiology department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière University hospital in Paris, is a world-renowned specialist of consciousness. He particularly distinguished himself by demonstrating the existence of rich unconscious cognitive processing in response to subliminal stimuli (words, numbers, symbols).
More generally, his research work has allowed to consider consciousness as a tangible and concrete scientific object, which can now be materialised and quantified.
The Lamonica Price of Neurology award touches me a lot, because it is a sign of recognition from the Academy of Sciences and my peers. I see this distinction as an encouragement to continue this research into unknown territory, on the boundaries of the objective and subjective. In practical terms, it will enable me to fund two post-doctoral fellows to advance further in the understanding of consciousness, both in healthy subjects and in patients.
Professor Lionel Naccache has extended his work to the study of pathologies such as coma, vegetative or minimally conscious states, and perception neurological disorders, and has developed a hearing test to use with non-communicating patients, and consciousness indicators to study it in real-time through trans-cranial stimulations.
The Lamonica Price of Neurology award ceremony took place during the Academy of Sciences award ceremony.
