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0 0 0 0 Mental retardation (MR) is a common condition characterized by significant limitation in intellectual function and adaptive behavior that arise during childhood. MR is defined by an overall intelligence quotient lower than 70 associated with deficit in social, daily living and communication

L'horloge circadienne repose sur une boucle d'autorégulation transcriptionnelle négative. La période de 24h est déterminée par la durée de vie des protéines dont la quantité oscille au cours de la journée. Le projet vise à identifier de nouveaux gènes, en particulier des gènes codant pour des protéi

Visual exploration of a complex visual scene is a dynamical process involving rapid eye movements of various amplitudes. Even during the fixation of a limited portion of the scene, microsaccades are produced that share many of the properties of larger amplitude saccades. However, these miniature mov

Recent studies of normal and pathological social and emotional behavior have identified a set of brain areas necessary for recognizing and responding to social stimuli. Yet, little is known about the specific neuronal mechanisms involved in these functions. We will address this issue in a non-human

Neuronal projections are guided towards their targets by multiple molecular cues expressed in their environment. The sensitivity of the axons for the cues varies over the navigation and depends on the context in which the cues are presented. It is therefore important to understand what controls axon

ALS is a fatal adult-onset neurodegenerative disease for which no cure exist today. Understanding why some motoneuron degenerate in ALS while other survive would constitute a major breakthrough in our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for this disease. One of the hypothe

A significant percentage of temporal lobe epilepsies are resistant to any pharmacological treatment. Surprisingly, despite the development of various antiepileptic drugs, the proportion of drug-resistant patients has remained stable for decades ; new therapeutic targets need to be identified. In ad

Cerebral inflammation develops in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease and is though to contribute to neuronal death and disease progression. Therefore, tackling this inflammation is an important therapeutic goal. However, to achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the neuro-immun

The brain consumes enormous amounts of energy to support its normal activity. Paradoxically, a diseased brain requires even more energy than the normal brain. Moreover, if this energy is not supplied adequately, brain's metabolic requirements increase even further, thus creating a vicious circle and

The relapsing nature of drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder may depend on two major biological processes: 1. a long-term change in the expression of specific proteins that would cause a quantitative change in the functional status of neurons and in their ability to process drug- or tra

Our project uses behavioural studies to explore the neural basis of metacognition, that is, the introspective processes which lead to one's degree of confidence in one's decisionsNotre projet explore par des études expérimentales les bases neurales des processus . A process which, therefore, drives

During dvelopment, oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the central nervous system (CNS), are derived from oligodendrocyte precursor cells expressing the proteoglycan NG2 (OPCs/NG2 cells). These precursor cells also persist in the adult CNS where they represent the main proliferating cell type

In 2006, an estimated 15 million persons (25 percent of the french population) were current cigarette smokers (Observatoire Français des drogues et des Toxicomanies, 2006). In France, cigarette smoking accounts for 90% of lung cancer cases, and is the largest single cause of mortality, killing 66 00

Recent clinical and preclinical research strongly suggests that the stress response is a key determinant in the appearance of various disorders of the nervous system such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders and associated cognitive impairments, and addiction. In response to stress, the adrenal g

A neuronal network made of several groups of respiratory neurons in the brainstem sets the breathing activity. This network dispatches a rhythmic command to motoneurons that mobilizes the upper airway musculature and the thoracic pump. The basal respiratory activity is permanently adjusted to respon

Language disorders and focal epilepsies are frequent childhood neurological disorders, with major medical, educational and socio-economical consequences. An important role for abnormal development and maturation of the cerebral cortex has been proposed. Our project aims at understanding those anomal

Cocaine is currently the second most used illegal drug in Europe and its use is increasing. The most perplexing aspect of cocaine addiction from a rational choice perspective is that addicted individuals apparently behave against their best interests and judgments. They continue to seek and to take

All speakers of a language possess strong grammatical intuitions, as attested by our ability to parse novel sentences such as “All mimsy were the borogoves” or “colourless green ideas sleep furiously”. Crucially, these intuitions are not reducible to sequential transition probabilities. To explain

One of the characteristics of neural activity in neocortical networks is that there is a considerable level of self-sustained ongoing activity, which exhibits highly complex but structured spatiotemporal patterns of action potentials and whose irregularity in time is often interpreted as "noise". In

Homeoproteins are a family of proteins of a similar nature originally identified for their role in organizing embryo development, through the regulation of gene expression. These proteins have additional functions in adults and their mutation is often associated with pathologies. Recently, a new mod

The hypothesis that drives this project is that the anatomical remodeling of striatal microcircuits involving cholinergic interneurons is critically important for the pathological functioning of the basal ganglia (BG) network and for mediating the major symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The stri

To our knowledge, this project will provide the first basis of understanding how, in vivo, pituitary cell networks (GH and PRL) receive and decode their brain inputs, to deliver the appropriate pattern of hormone secretion to peripheral tissues 1/ We generated a new transgenic mouse line, GHRH-Cre,

Obesity is a major health problem in developed countries and a growing one in the developing world. However, despite this, efficient anti-obesity treatments are currently lacking. Thus, because of the social and medical burden represented by obesity, intense research in recent years has focused on u

Remembering past personal events of life, sometimes in great details, contributes to our individual construction and determines our relations with others. This capacity of our brain to store memories and to relive them during recall is known in humans as ‘episodic memory’, the memory of what happene

0 0 0 0 Our studies concern the common signaling molecules shared by the vascular and nervous system. The scientific program focuses on neural cells expressing VEGFRs (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptors) and aims at determining the function of VEGFRs during the successive steps of neural

Synapses are the fundamental computation unit of neurons, but are extremely small and inaccessible by classical studies using electrodes. We have developed and characterized molecules that indicates changes in voltage and calcium be increasing their fluorescence. We expect these tools and methods to

This project is divided in two parts. The first and main part, “Genetic dissection of central respiratory circuits” is a concerted attempt at teasing apart neuronal circuits involved in respiratory functions. More precisely, our work will focus on the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN), a group of interne

0 0 0 0 Even in motivated individuals, performance during attention-demanding activities is often characterized by temporal fluctuations due to transient, involuntary shifts of attention away from the task at hand, with sometimes disastrous consequences. Those “Momentary Lapses of Attention” (MLA) h

Learning & memory are fundamental processes allowing encoding, storing, and retrieving information (about space, time and emotion). These processes allow that each individual adapts to the everyday changing environment thereby contributing to species perpetuity. However this ability to “navigate in

A decrease in synaptic inhibition –disinhibition- appears to be an important substrate in several neuronal disorders, such as spinal cord injury (SCI), neuropathic pain... Glycine and GABA are the major inhibitory transmitters in the spinal cord. An important emerging mechanism by which the strength

The present project explores the pathophysiological implication of a family of ionotropic glutamate receptors, kainate receptors (KARs) in acute and chronic models of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). This project takes advantage of the use of KAR-subunit deficient mice and selected pharmacological agen

The nervous system has a highly complex organization. Its development begins during embryogenesis, during which neurons extend thin processes called axons, that grow towards their target cells with which they establish connexions. This early phasis is followed by postnatal maturation steps, during w