Fabien D'Hondt
Research Areas
Theoretical Framework
In recent decades, the field of affective sciences has experienced remarkable growth, to the extent that some have referred to the emergence of an "affectivism" era (Dukes et al., 2021). Research in this domain has increasingly revealed the explanatory power of affective phenomena – encompassing affect, emotions, feelings, and mood – in understanding human cognition and behavior. Affective processes have a critical influence on our well-being and shape our decision-making, interpersonal relationships, and, more broadly, our interactions with the world. Disruptions of these affective processes can have a substantial impact on mental health, and constitute fundamental features of various psychiatric disorders and addictive behaviors.
Within this framework, our research is particularly focused on emotions, which are considered organismic states induced by external or internal stimuli and respond to survival needs through allostatic regulation (Schiller et al., 2022). Emotions play a pivotal role in determining what aspects of the world require our attention, guiding our behavior, and shaping our choices. Building on this premise, our work aims to better understand: (i) the mechanisms underpinning emotional experiences induced by exposure to, or anticipation of, affectively laden stimuli, including social stimuli; (ii) the alterations in these mechanisms within the context of mental health disorders.
Target Populations
Our work focuses on both healthy populations and individuals with mental health disorders. We are particularly interested in two highly prevalent and frequently comorbid issues: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol-related disorders, including severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD).
On one hand, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following exposure to a traumatic event that confronts the individual with death, severe injury, or sexual violence. Individuals with PTSD experience uncontrollable reminders of the traumatic event, such as flashbacks or nightmares, causing significant psychological distress and leading them to actively avoid any stimuli associated with the event. Existing cognitive and neurobiological models of PTSD and commonly used therapeutic approaches primarily focus on these symptoms (Bryant, 2019). However, the emotional experiences of individuals with PTSD are profoundly altered, beyond the specific emotional charge associated with the trauma. They frequently experience persistent negative emotions, have difficulties experiencing positive emotions, and anticipate the future negatively. In light of these emotional difficulties, a more integrated approach aiming to elucidate the affective disturbances associated with PTSD could help identify complementary therapeutic avenues.
On the other hand, SAUD is characterized by excessive, uncontrolled, and chronic alcohol consumption, despite negative consequences (Koob & Volkow, 2016). Neuroscience research has highlighted structural and functional brain alterations in patients with AUD. These alterations are consistent with the idea of striato-limbic hyperactivity, leading to a greater craving for the substance, and prefrontal hypoactivity, limiting the ability to control or inhibit consumption behavior. This imbalance explains deleterious decision-making, particularly the choice to prioritize short-term consequences (Noël et al., 2013). Current conceptions, however, give little consideration to the affective dimension, especially the emotional experiences, and general capacity to predict emotional responses in the future. Integrating this affective dimension into current research and models is crucial to gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to the development and persistence of this disorder.
Methodologies and Research Axes
Our experimental studies employ methods from experimental psychology, including behavioral tasks using visual stimuli presented on computer screens or virtual reality devices. These methods are combined with neuroscience techniques, measuring eye movements, neurovegetative activity (e.g., electrodermal activity, electrocardiography), or brain activity (e.g., EEG). In addition to experimental studies, we also use online surveys and clinical work that involves questionnaires and digital markers (e.g., facial recognition, interactions on touchscreens, etc.).
Our current research program is structured into three key axes:
Eye tracking has been increasingly used over the two past decades to gain insights into cognitive and affective deficits associated with mental health disorders, including alcohol-related disorders (Maurage, Masson, et al., 2020; Maurage, Bollen, et al., 2020, 2021). In the case of alcohol use disorder, eye tracking has shown promise in helping us understand the mechanisms underlying attentional biases related to alcohol-related cues (Bollen, D’Hondt, et al., 2021). Findings from our collaboration with UCLouvain suggest that binge drinkers tend to allocate more attention to alcohol-related and other appetitive cues when experiencing high cravings for these stimuli (Bollen et al., 2020). Conversely, detoxified SAUD patients exhibit an avoidance bias towards alcohol-related cues (Bollen, Pabst, et al., 2021).
Our studies also indicate that individuals tend to engage more attentional resources to process negative information compared to neutral information (Veerapa et al., 2020). This pattern is also observed in individuals with PTSD (Veerapa et al., 2023), who continue to allocate more attention to aversive information with prolonged exposure, unlike healthy controls, whether they have experienced trauma or not. Our ongoing work seeks to develop cognitive remediation strategies to reduce this attentional bias. We are also exploring the use of a web application to assess and reduce biases through webcam-based eye-tracking techniques.
Our brains can simulate the future and its potential consequences based on past experiences (Gilbert & Wilson, 2007). Affective forecasting specifically refers to individuals' capacity to predict their emotional responses to future events (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). To assess affective forecasting and emotional experiences associated with various events (negative, neutral, or positive), we have developed a novel paradigm based on virtual reality. This paradigm incorporates neurovegetative and subjective measures in controlled laboratory conditions. Our studies have confirmed the existence of an affective forecasting bias in healthy individuals, as they anticipate more extreme emotional responses in terms of arousal and valence than they actually experience (Loisel-Fleuriot et al., 2023). Our data also indicate that affective forecasting in terms of arousal is partly based on autonomic responses induced by the mental simulation of future scenarios during the forecasting phase. Our current work aims to further explore the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with affective forecasting and examine various influencing factors, including familiarity with the type of predicted stimuli. Additionally, we are utilizing this paradigm to investigate affective forecasting and emotional experiences in individuals with PTSD or AUD.
Patients with SAUD face challenges in processing emotional information within social contexts, ranging from basic facial expression decoding to more complex social cognition abilities (D’Hondt, Campanella, et al., 2014). These difficulties may be linked to visuoperceptive impairments (Creupelandt et al., 2019; D’Hondt, Lepore, et al., 2014), which are commonly reported in SAUD (Creupelandt, D’Hondt, et al., 2021; Creupelandt, Maurage, & D’Hondt, 2021). Our research suggests that these perceptual disturbances may originate at the earliest stages of sensory processing, possibly as early as the retinal level (Creupelandt, Maurage, Lenoble, et al., 2021), affecting both magnocellular and parvocellular processing (Creupelandt et al., 2022). These disturbances are likely to have a widespread impact on patients' cognition, including the decoding of facial expressions (Creupelandt et al., 2020). This impact can vary within the heterogeneous population of individuals with SAUD (Maurage, Pabst, et al., 2021). Despite this variability, emotional and interpersonal difficulties are frequently observed (Maurage et al., 2017). Recognizing this heterogeneity is essential when considering therapeutic strategies (Rolland et al., 2019), particularly in the context of implementing cognitive remediation (Maurage et al., 2023).
While PTSD is a common consequence of major disasters, the debate continues about whether the Covid-19 pandemic was potentially traumatic for the general population (Wathelet et al., 2021). Through our work with the CN2R, we conducted a repeated cross-sectional survey, COSAMe, to study the pandemic's impact on the mental health of university students in France. Our findings reveal that during the initial lockdown, 22.4% of students (N = 69,054) reported experiencing acute stress (Wathelet et al., 2020). Furthermore, our data illustrate a significant increase in the prevalence of PTSD over time, rising from 19.5% (N = 22,883) just one month after the end of the initial lockdown (Wathelet et al., 2021) to 31.0% (N = 44,898) 15 months later (Wathelet et al., 2022).
Our results also highlight a connection between the severity of PTSD and the quality of social bonds during the lockdown. Preliminary analyses suggest that individuals who demonstrated deficient performance in various social cognition tasks were more likely to develop PTSD. This association indicates that PTSD may be linked to impaired social bonds, which could be the result of unsatisfactory socialization processes within an individual's social network and their ability to establish effective interpersonal relationships. Our ongoing research is dedicated to further exploring these social bonds, considering both the emotional and interpersonal skills of individuals within their social networks, and how these factors influence the development of specific post-traumatic trajectories.
References
Bollen, Z., D’Hondt, F., Dormal, V., Lannoy, S., Masson, N., & Maurage, P. (2021). Understanding attentional biases in severe alcohol use disorder: A combined behavioral and eye-tracking perspective. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 56(1), 1–7.
Bollen, Z., Masson, N., Salvaggio, S., D’Hondt, F., & Maurage, P. (2020). Craving is everything: An eye-tracking exploration of attentional bias in binge drinking. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 34(6), 636–647.
Bollen, Z., Pabst, A., Masson, N., Billaux, P., D’Hondt, F., Deleuze, J., De Longueville, X., Lambot, C., & Maurage, P. (2021). Alcohol-related attentional biases in recently detoxified inpatients with severe alcohol use disorder: an eye-tracking approach. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 225, 108803.
Bryant, R. A. (2019). Post‐traumatic stress disorder: a state‐of‐the‐art review of evidence and challenges. World Psychiatry, 18(3), 259–269.
Creupelandt, C., D’Hondt, F., de Timary, P., Falagiarda, F., Collignon, O., & Maurage, P. (2020). Selective visual and crossmodal impairement in the discrimination of anger and fear expressions in severe alcohol use disorder. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 213, 108079.
Creupelandt, C., D’Hondt, F., & Maurage, P. (2019). Towards a Dynamic Exploration of Vision, Cognition and Emotion in Alcohol-Use Disorders. Current Neuropharmacology, 17(6), 492–506.
Creupelandt, C., D’Hondt, F., & Maurage, P. (2021). Neural correlates of visuoperceptive changes in severe alcohol use disorder: A critical review of neuroimaging and electrophysiological findings. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 99(5), 1253–1275.
Creupelandt, C., Maurage, P., Bocanegra, B., Szaffarczyk, S., de Timary, P., Deleuze, J., Lambot, C., & D’Hondt, F. (2022). Spatial frequency processing and its modulation by emotional content in severe alcohol use disorder. Psychopharmacology, 239(8), 2647–2657.
Creupelandt, C., Maurage, P., & D’Hondt, F. (2021). Visuoperceptive Impairments in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder: A Critical Review of Behavioral Studies. Neuropsychology Review, 31(3), 361–384.
Creupelandt, C., Maurage, P., Lenoble, Q., Lambot, C., Geus, C., & D’Hondt, F. (2021). Magnocellular and Parvocellular Mediated Luminance Contrast Discrimination in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 45(2), 375–385.
D’Hondt, F., Campanella, S., Kornreich, C., Philippot, P., & Maurage, P. (2014). Below and beyond the recognition of emotional facial expressions in alcohol dependence: From basic perception to social cognition. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 10, 2177–2182.
D’Hondt, F., Lepore, F., & Maurage, P. (2014). Are visual impairments responsible for emotion decoding deficits in alcohol-dependence? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 128.
Dukes, D., Abrams, K., Adolphs, R., Ahmed, M. E., Beatty, A., Berridge, K. C., Broomhall, S., Brosch, T., Campos, J. J., Clay, Z., Clément, F., Cunningham, W. A., Damasio, A., Damasio, H., D’Arms, J., Davidson, J. W., de Gelder, B., Deonna, J., de Sousa, R., … Sander, D. (2021). The rise of affectivism. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(7), 816–820.
Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2007). Prospection: Experiencing the future. Science, 317(5843), 1351–1354.
Koob, G. F., & Volkow, N. D. (2016). Neurobiology of addiction: a neurocircuitry analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(8), 760–773.
Loisel-Fleuriot, L., Fovet, T., Bugnet, A., Creupelandt, C., Wathelet, M., Szaffarczyk, S., Duhem, S., Vaiva, G., Horn, M., & D’Hondt, F. (2023). A pilot study investigating affective forecasting biases with a novel virtual reality ‑ based paradigm. Scientific Reports, 13, 9321.
Maurage, P., Bollen, Z., Masson, N., & D’Hondt, F. (2020). A review of studies exploring fetal alcohol spectrum disorders through eye tracking measures. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 103(May), 109980.
Maurage, P., Bollen, Z., Masson, N., & D’Hondt, F. (2021). Eye Tracking Studies Exploring Cognitive and Affective Processes among Alcohol Drinkers: a Systematic Review and Perspectives. Neuropsychology Review, 31(1), 167–201.
Maurage, P., Masson, N., Bollen, Z., & D’Hondt, F. (2020). Eye tracking correlates of acute alcohol consumption: A systematic and critical review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 108(October 2019), 400–422.
Maurage, P., Pabst, A., Lannoy, S., D’Hondt, F., de Timary, P., Gaudelus, B., & Peyroux, E. (2021). Tackling heterogeneity: Individual variability of emotion decoding deficits in severe alcohol use disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 279, 299–307.
Maurage, P., Rolland, B., Lise, A., & Fabien, P. (2023). Five Challenges in Implementing Cognitive Remediation for Patients with Substance Use Disorders in Clinical Settings. Neuropsychology Review.
Maurage, P., Timary, P. de, & D’Hondt, F. (2017). Heterogeneity of emotional and interpersonal difficulties in alcohol-dependence: A cluster analytic approach. Journal of Affective Disorders, 217, 163–173.
Noël, X., Brevers, D., & Bechara, A. (2013). A neurocognitive approach to understanding the neurobiology of addiction. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 23(4), 632–638.
Rolland, B., D’Hondt, F., Montègue, S., Brion, M., Peyron, E., D’Aviau de Ternay, J., de Timary, P., Nourredine, M., & Maurage, P. (2019). A Patient-Tailored Evidence-Based Approach for Developing Early Neuropsychological Training Programs in Addiction Settings. Neuropsychology Review, 29(1), 103–115.
Schiller, D., Alessandra, N. C., Alia-Klein, N., Becker, S., Cromwell, H. C., Dolcos, F., Eslinger, P. J., Frewen, P., Kemp, A. H., & Pace-Schott, E. F. (2022). The human affectome. 1–47.
Veerapa, E., Grandgenèvre, P., El Fayoumi, M., Vinnac, B., Haelewyn, O., Szaffarczyk, S., Vaiva, G., & D’Hondt, F. (2020). Attentional bias towards negative stimuli in healthy individuals and the effects of trait anxiety. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 11826.
Veerapa, E., Grandgenèvre, P., Vaiva, G., Duhem, S., Fayoumi, M. El, Vinnac, B., Szaffarczyk, S., Wathelet, M., Fovet, T., & D’Hondt, F. (2023). Attentional bias toward negative stimuli in PTSD: an eye-tracking study. Psychological Medicine, 53(12), 5809–5817.
Wathelet, M., Fovet, T., Jousset, A., Duhem, S., Habran, E., Horn, M., Debien, C., Notredame, C. E., Baubet, T., Vaiva, G., & D’Hondt, F. (2021). Prevalence of and factors associated with post-traumatic stress disorder among French university students 1 month after the COVID-19 lockdown. Translational Psychiatry, 11(1), 327.
Wathelet, M., Horn, M., Creupelandt, C., Fovet, T., Baubet, T., Habran, E., Martignène, N., Vaiva, G., & D’Hondt, F. (2022). Mental Health Symptoms of University Students 15 Months After the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in France. JAMA Network Open, 5(12), e2249342.
Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2003). Affective Forecasting. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 345–411.