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The consolidation of fear memory: in vivo & ex vivo optogenetic dissection of neuronal mechanisms in the hippocampus - prefrontal cortex network. – INEXCONSO
Fear and anxiety-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among the most frequent psychiatric conditions and represent a major public health concern. Such disorders are commonly viewed as impairment of fear memory, its consolidation in particular. Pavlovian fear conditioni
Cross-frequency coupling analysis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as potential biomarker and therapeutic target – FrequALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons (UMN & LMN), located in the cerebral cortex, and the brainstem and spinal cord, respectively. ALS diagnosis mostly relies on LMN signs, which are also common to other diseases. In addition, the
Impacts of stress and sex hormones on the adolescent brain – ADOSTRESS
Adolescence is considered as a sensitive period for social stress. With the onset of puberty, stress-reactivity rises, as does the risk for development of psychopathology, while recovery from social stress is compromised. Together, these suggest a link between stress physiology and sexual maturation
Interoception, Action and Relaxation – InterAX
Interoception, defined as the conscious or unconscious perception of internal bodily signals, encompasses many different systems (cardio-respiratory, gastro-intestinal, genito-urinary, …) with very distinct physiological functions. By contrast in cognitive neuroscience interoception is referred to a
Translational study of the neural circuits underlying the negative emotional biases of depressive disorders and their response to ketamine – EMOKET
Depressive episodes (DE) are among the leading factors in disability worldwide, affecting up to 300 million people annually. Beyond the sad mood, depressed patients exhibit a negative emotional bias (NEB), which involves assigning more negative valences to stimuli salient enough to trigger emotion.
The cerebellum in emotional learning – CerebellEMO
The cerebellum (Cb) is a major brain structure with extensive connections to both caudal brainstem and rostral sub-cortical areas. The Cb is eminently known for its control of motor functions. However recent findings suggest that it could also play a central role in the regulation of emotional behav
Premature Human Connectome Patterns: mapping the fetal brain development using extreme field MRI – p-HCP
The incidence of preterm birth and the survival rate of preterm infants are increasing in developed countries. Injury to the perinatal brain is a leading cause of death and disability. Preterm brain encephalopathy is a complex association of primary destructive disease and secondary maturational dis
Serotonin modulation of Cortical-Basal Ganglia circuits involved in food motivation and Avoidance: Translational and multimodal Brain Imaging Investigation from primate to Anorexic patients. – FoodAvoid-BrainCircuits
New converging evidences shows that the serotonin (5-HT) transmission in the Basal Ganglia (BG) could be involved in different psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety and food intake disorders. Combining several dimensions of these psychiatric symptoms, the restrictive form of Anorexia Ner
Representation of natural sounds in the human brain: Transforming acoustics into the semantics of sound sources in the environment – SoundBrainSem
Recognizing sound sources in the environment is a key function of the auditory system, and is fundamental to our well-being. Our brain achieves this feat by transforming what we hear into representations of the semantics of the sound source. The computational nature of this transformation is poorly
Novel rat behavioural and (opto) pharmacological approaches to investigate alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in relation to neuropsychiatric disorder endophenotypes – NICOPTOTOUCH
Cognitive deficits are a core and shared syndrome of various neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Numerous studies have shown an implication of the homomeric nicotinic acetylcholine receptors composed of the alpha7 subunit (a7*nAChRs) in these disorders. Notably, frequent
How do natural neuronal networks deal with noise ? – NatNetNoise
The retina processes visual stimuli through a sequence of stacked neuronal layers equipped with horizontal connections, and eventually transmits visual information through the noisy spiking activity of its output layer. The retina can therefore be seen as a concrete biological realisation of a deep
Investing Space: vestibular stimulation to investigate self-motion perception – In-Vest
How the human brain integrates vestibular input for self-motion perception is the question that we propose to tackle with an innovative strategy by (1) efficiently stimulating the vestibule using galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) to trigger a vivid illusion of self-motion, (2) identifying the br
Breath-hold divers: a relevant model to test adaptability of Hippocampal formation to Hypoxia? – HippoXia
While hypoxia has damaging effects on the nervous system, performance of breath-hold (BH) free-divers suggests that the brain readily adapts to low oxygen supplies. Apnea sports constitute a natural model to study the effects of repeated hypoxic exposure on brain function in healthy individuals. In
A neuro-computational assessment of mood fluctuations and their impact on decision making – Moodeling
Life events – whether positive or negative – induce mood variations, while being in a good mood would induce a “rosy outlook”, leading us to view events (or prospects) as more positive than they objectively are. Such reciprocal interaction is also supported by clinical observations. We and others re
Myelin implications in executive control in adolescence and adulthood – Myelex
During brain development, the myelination process by oligodendrocytes is critical to shape action potential fidelity and neuronal network synchronization. Although myelin is critical for the proper function of neuronal circuits and behaviour, little is known on how myelination shapes complex cogniti
Brain hijack by opiates: focus on the corticotropin-releasing factor system – BIOSCIENCE
Opiate use disorders (OUD) are chronic, relapsing, diseases with a major health and socio-economic impact worldwide. To date, they are treated mainly by substitutive opioid receptor agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine. However, the latter opiate therapy is often ineffective, increasingly m
Expectation, Exploration and Exploitation in active Vision – Vision-3E
Perceiving is essentially a decision process, whereby our brain has to deal with multiple uncertain and often ambiguous elements from the sensory input to make sense of the world. This is particularly evident with multistable, ambiguous visual stimuli, where multiple interpretations (percepts) are p
Bone conduction in speech and music – INCEPTION-CONTROL
During speech, singing, or music playing, the auditory feedback involves both an aerial component received by the external ear, and an internal vibration: the ‘bone conduction’ component. While the speaker or musician hears both components, a listener only hears the aerial part. Thus, a person, chil
Neuroimaging of social networks in semi-free ranging monkeys – SocialNeuroNet
Most primates live in complex societies composed of dozens of individuals and structured by features such as dominance hierarchy, friendship and kinship; giving rise to topological variables such as centrality, social distance or betweenness. Being able to represent these features is key to social n
Cellular mechanisms of learning in a closed-loop sensorimotor task – MotorSense
Considering the astronomic rewards granted to the best sports athletes, humans undoubtedly marvel at exceptional motor skills, to the point of justifying decades of intense training to reach top performance. Perhaps our fascination stems from our own experience that learning a new skill can be diffi
Decoding the Hippocampal (and cortical) oscillatory Complexity to predict behavior and its pathological alterations – HippoComp
Coherent oscillations of neuronal activity, ubiquitous across brain scales, would play core roles in information transfer and processing. Oscillatory coordination is implicated in the formation of sensory or behavioral representations, or in the flexible routing of information between neuronal popul
New Roles of the External Globus Pallidus in Decision-Making Neural Networks: Function and Dysfunction – Demake
Basal ganglia (BG) are a set of interconnected subcortical nuclei involved in decision-making and their malfunction is responsible for decision-making deficits observed in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD). The external globus pallidus (GPe) is a major component of the BG circuitry an
Neural circuit dynamics underlying persistent active place avoidance. – NEURAVOID
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the fourth most prevalent psychiatric diagnosis encompassing three clusters of symptoms: re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoidance symptoms and hyper arousal. PTSD is characterized by a high-rate of treatment resistance and inter-individual variability,
Ketamine and belief updating: Neurocognitive mechanisms in the treatment of major depressive disorder. – KETABELIEF
Major depressive disorder is a debilitating disease. Despite its significance, the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in clinical remission remain mysterious. One out of three patients does not respond to monoaminergic treatments, leading to the diagnosis of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Her
Dissection of molecular and neural circuits underlying impulse control disorders: A translational approach – DISCOMMODE
Impulse control disorders (ICDs), for example gambling behaviors, hypersexuality or compulsive eating, are characterized by urges and excessive and uncontrolled behaviors, which ultimately can become harmful. Although ICDs are on the rise and a growing socio-economic burden, the underlying molecular
Tuning down synapses to remap the brain and adapt behavior – syTune
Functional sensory maps in the cerebral cortex reorganize in response to peripheral injury, with active modalities gaining cortical space at the expense of less active regions. Map expansion drives homeostatic and activity-dependent strengthening and weakening of pre-existing synapses to promote the
Relative value learning: computational processes and neural foundations – RELATIVE
De nombreuses preuves dans l'économie comportementale et les neurosciences suggèrent que les préférences et les décisions dépendent du contexte. Pourtant, la manière spécifique dont les informations contextuelles sont intégrées dynamiquement pour influencer l'évaluation et la prise de décision reste
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis as a process to rejuvenate the aging brain – RejuvBrain
Aging is accompanied by a decline in memory but these alterations are extremely variable between subjects: some individuals preserve memory abilities (Resilient, Res), whereas others show a clear substantial memory decline (Vulnerable, Vul). We believe that understanding the processes underlying suc
Deciphering the spatial representation of connected environments – ConnecSpace
Navigation is a critical ability for mammals. Over the past decades, numerous studies have revealed a network of brain areas containing space coding neurons, including hippocampal place cells, medial entorhinal grid cells, retrosplenial and anterothalamic head direction cells. The properties of thes
Deciphering the role of oxytocin in the cerebellum – CERBOT
Oxytocin is an evolutionary ancient neurohormone famous for its role in maternity and in attachment (“love hormone”). Recent studies point-out oxytocin as the hormone of “adaptation to the others”, i.e. , mainly, the social environment. Consequently, the central role of oxytocin and the physiology o
Adaptation vs Interruption: the dual nature of the human medial prefrontal cortex – DUALTRACK
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a key hub for executive functions. However, its computational function still remains deeply controversial: conflict monitoring, action outcome predictor, expected value of control, speed-accuracy tradeoff, exploration... Findings on dmPFC can be broadly grouped
Temporal Statistics in Audition and Speech – TEMPSTATS
Predicting the timing of sensory events is essential for daily behavior. The aim of TEMPSTATS is to understand how we predict sensory timing in complex auditory settings, and in speech in particular. First, the project will investigate how auditory processing is affected by the temporal statistics o
Oscillatory processes in audition – OSCILL-A
Le cerveau humain change rythmiquement entre des moments optimaux et non optimaux pour la perception. Cette "oscillation neuronale" est nécessaire au bon fonctionnement du cerveau : Les moments optimaux "ouvrent la porte" aux événements importants qui nécessitent une attention particulière, tandis q
Behavioural Variability, Brain Plasticity and Division of Labour in Social Insects – BePlacid
L'émergence de la socialité constitue une transition évolutive majeure. Les formes les plus complexes de vie sociale sont trouvées chez les espèces eusociales où les reines et les ouvrières s'engagent à vie dans des castes distinctes. Les mécanismes physiologiques et comportementaux à l'origine des
