Research

My research lies at the interface between specialised clinical psychiatry and clinical neuroscience. It aims to better characterise severe, treatment-resistant and clinically complex psychiatric disorders, by developing approaches that make symptoms objectively measurable, that allow clinical trajectories to be analysed, and that improve the prediction of treatment response. This work is carried out within the INTERACTIONS team, accredited by INSERM, part of the Lille Neuroscience & Cognition laboratory. It draws on national and international collaborations, which have given rise to more than 270 publications.

Research themes and projects

Objective clinical psychiatry — CALYPSO

CALYPSO — Clinique et AnaLYses PSychiatriques Objectives, objective psychiatric assessment and analysis — is a research programme developing an objective, computational approach to clinical psychiatry. It draws in particular on artificial intelligence methods, including computer vision, to contribute to the objective measurement of psychiatric symptoms, the analysis of their evolution over time, and the prediction of treatment response.

Fundamental clinical science

CALYPSO grew out of work and reflection on the notion of fundamental clinical science — the study of the foundations on which the study of clinical manifestations rests. Looking closely at the definitions and origins of signs and symptoms in psychiatry, one quickly sees that the clinical model of psychiatry developed, in France at least, on the model of medical semiology within the anatomo-clinical method. That method assumes a causal relationship between lesions observed post mortem and clinical manifestations. Yet the anatomo-clinical premise does not appear to hold for psychiatric disorders. The epistemological foundations of clinical psychiatry may therefore look fragile.

The epistemological basis of CALYPSO, together with a fuller description of the programme, is set out in this lecture.

Psychiatric symptoms that can be measured

Technological developments allow certain psychiatric symptoms to be approached differently. From this perspective, many psychiatric signs and symptoms have been shown to be observable and measurable. Depression, for instance, is characterised by reduced physical activity, reduced vocal pitch variation, and diminished facial expressiveness and head movement.

Who was Calypso?

In Greek mythology, Calypso — from the Ancient Greek Καλυψώ, “she who conceals”, “she who hides” — is a sea nymph who kept Odysseus in her cave, out of love, for seven years. The idea behind CALYPSO is to reveal and make visible clinical manifestations that had until now remained hidden.

Catatonia

A substantial part of my research is devoted to catatonia, understood as a transdiagnostic psychomotor syndrome. This work draws on complementary approaches, from clinical and epidemiological analysis through to neuroscience, with particular attention to the underlying mechanisms, the identification of clinical profiles, and the prediction of treatment response.

Mechanisms of physical treatments

My research also addresses the mechanisms of action of physical treatments, in particular electroconvulsive therapy and neuromodulation techniques, considered both as major therapeutic tools in treatment-resistant presentations and as models for understanding the mechanisms of clinical response.

Directing the F2RSM Psy

Since February 2026 I have directed the F2RSM Psy — the regional federation for research in psychiatry and mental health of the Hauts-de-France region. Established in 2007, this public interest grouping now brings together 50 healthcare institutions with psychiatric activity across the region, whether public, private, or private non-profit.

Its mission is to promote research in psychiatry and mental health across the region: to facilitate research by creating the conditions for its development, to foster research momentum arising from clinical practice, and to reflect on care needs and on the evaluation of innovative practice.