INVESTIGATION – Expatriation, often described as “fulfilling” or “stimulating”, triggers deep cognitive mechanisms, shaping the brain. Small foray into the skulls of voluntary exiles.
Try the experiment: talk about expatriation in the company of people who have lived abroad, and observe their reaction. Most of the time, a smile tinged with nostalgia precedes a flood of adjectives where the worst (rarely) rubs shoulders with the best (often). But what do these qualifiers conceal, the summoning of which seems to come from the myotatic reflex? What mental mechanisms are at work behind the “fulfilling”, the “stimulating”, and the “demanding” which usually accompany expatriates upon their return?
To try to understand it, a journey to the heart of our brain is necessary. And even if it means undertaking the journey, you might as well do it with specialists in the steep paths of cognition. Valentin Wyart, director of neuroscience research at Inserm, agreed to play scouts, and to sift through his expertise an experience – expatriation – which is characterized first and foremost by a change, sometimes radical, of environment…
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