PhysioNet

(Physiology & Physiopathology of Brain Networks Team)

PhysioNet is an interdisciplinary team of researchers pooling expertise from diverse backgrounds (engineering, biology, physics, medicine, mathematics) and aiming to understand the physiology of biological neuronal networks.

There are currently three research groups in PhysioNet whose activities overlap and that tackle the understanding of neuronal network physiology at multiple levels, from cellular physiology with patch clamp to neural population recording with extracellular electrophysiology, to whole-brain imaging and modelling.

PHONE: +33 4 91 32 42 31

PHYSIONET RESEARCH

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Dynamics of Neuronal Networks and Memory (PI: P. Quilichini)

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Cognitive processes depend upon the activity of distributed networks in the brain. We use multiple silicon probes recordings in rodents sampling the network activities and the firing of a large number of neurons in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, entorhinal cortex and thalamic nucleus reuniens.

Our two main goals are:

(1) Understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying the communication between brain regions controlling memory processes by deciphering how cortico-thalamo-hippocampal networks exchange information to encode and consolidate spatial-related information.

(2) Understand how these physiological rules are modified in different pathological conditions, such as epilepsy.

We use data mining approaches to determine how the dynamics of hundreds of individual neurons and local network oscillations collected in animals performing memory-related tasks can support both memory function and dysfunction.

Mechanisms of cross structural communication (PI: M. Pompili)

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We are interested in the dynamics allowing the exchange of information between brain areas, namely how the information encoded in one neural structure is able to modulate the encoding in another area (and the other way around), how these interactions orchestrate perception, learning, and behavior, and how these mechanisms are affected by epilepsy. To do so, our primary experimental approach is to perform high-density recordings of individual neurons simultaneously in multiple brain sites in freely behaving rats and then use data mining and analysis to study neural population dynamics.

Cell and Network Dynamics in physiology and epilepsy (PI: C. Bernard)

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Using mathematical and modeling approaches in close collaboration with the TNG team of V. Jirsa, we are studying the basic mechanisms of seizure genesis and propagation across species. We also investigate the mechanisms of vulnerability to epilepsy induced by stress as well as the co-morbidities such as depression, cognitive deficits (memory). We use a multi-disciplinary approach in healthy animals (rats and mice), experimental models of epilepsy (pilocarpine and kainite models) and Alzheimer (APPNL-G-F transgenic mice) in which we couple multisite recordings (in close collaboration with P. Quilichini group) and behavior.

Figures extracted from:

Ferraris et al (2018) J Neurosci 38(12):3026-3038. & Angulo-Garcia et al (2020) J Neurosci 40:8343-835.

Clawson et al (2023) J Neurosci 43(38: 6573-6587.

Ghestem et al (2023) J. Neural Eng. 20:046003.