Visuo-perceptive deficits in severe alcohol use disorder : behavioral characterization and implications for emotional decoding

Visuo-perceptive deficits have long been reported in Severe Alcohol Use Disorder (SAUD) and are considered as particularly resistant to long-term abstinence. Their nature remains however poorly understood due to the use of broad multi-determined neuropsychological tests and the limited attempts to interpret them in light of the human visual system general organization. As a result, their influence on cardinal features of SAUD also remains to be determined. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to better describe these visuo-perceptive disturbances with respect to the two main visual pathways carrying distinct visual content, namely the parvocellular and magnocellular pathways, and to explore their implications for impaired emotional decoding in SAUD. The resulting literature reviews and experimental studies confirm the presence of low-level deficits and constitute the first direct exploration of vision-emotion interactions in this clinical population.