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.

TEAM LEAD - Pascale Quilichini

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PHONE: +33 4 91 32 42 31

PHYSIONET TEAM MEMBERS

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PIs

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Pascale QUILICHINI | CR Inserm Team Leader

Christophe BERNARD | DR Inserm

Marco POMPILI | Junior Research Fellow

LECTURERS RESEARCH ENGINEERS

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José BOUCRAUT | MCU CE-PH

Sylvie Thirion | MCU AMU

Antoine GHESTEM | IE AMU

Anton IVANOV | IR Inserm

Mathilde NORDLUND | IR AMU

TRAINEES

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Aitakin EZZATI | PhD student (sup. C Bernard, V Jirsa)

Sara SIMULA | Postdoc (sup. M Pompili)

Nariman KIANI | Postdoc (Sup. C Bernard)

Jiaxin LYU | PhD student (Sup. C Bernard, V Jirsa)

Kabeer ABUBAKAR | PhD student (Sup. C Bernard & A Ivanov)

Gabriel MAKDAH | PhD student (Sup. M Pompili, P Quilichini)

Pietro BOZZO | PhD student (Sup. P Quilichini, M Pompili)

Charles-Edouard QUERLIER | Master Student (Réseaux et télécommunication)

Laura MARIN | M2 Student (sup. P Quilichini, M Pompili)

Nataly MILAN | PhD student (sup. P Quilichini, C Bernard)

Guillaume BRUNO | Intern Centrale-Supélec Paris

Laëtitia COSTA DE BEAUREGARD | Intern Centrale-Supélec Paris

Matthieu AGUILERA | Postdoc (sup. P Quilichini, C Bernard)

FORMER MEMBERS

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Shunzuke KAJIWARA | PostDoc

Myriam AZZARELLI | PhD Student

Richard BOYCE | PostDoc

Monique ESCLAPEZ | DR Inserm

Ouafae ARAB | AMU IR

Maëva FERRARIS | PhD Student/PostDoc

Thomas DOUBLET | PostDoc

Armelle LOKOSSOU | PostDoc

Matthias DIPPER-WAWRA | PostDoc

Wesley CLAWSON | PhD Student

Yoshi NAKATANI | PhD Student

Ana FERNANDEZ VICENTE | PostDoc

Galyna MALIEIEVA | PhD Student/PostDoc

Priya GHUMATKAR | PostDoc

Loïg KERGOAT | PostDoc

Francesca MELLOZI | PhD Student…

FORMER INTERNS

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Nathan MINOUNI | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Correntin LASNE | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Yann ROCHE | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Raphaël NUNES DA SILVA | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Hugo DEGENEVE | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Valentin GRISEL | Epitech Marseille

Sarah WU | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Paul-Arno LAMARQUE | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Andrea Nuti | Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna

Noé Hamou | ESPCI Paris

Benjamin WAKED | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Etienne GUEVEL | Centrale-Supélec Paris

Omar BENJELLOUN | ESPCI Paris

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.

PHYSIONET PUBLICATIONS

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Makdah G, Wiener SI, Pompili MN (2025) Detection of Cell Assemblies in High-Density Extracellular Electrophysiological Recordings. In: Carrillo-Reid, L. (eds) “Identification, Characterization, and Manipulation of Neuronal Ensembles”. Neuromethods vol 215. Springer

Rabuffo G, Lokossou A, Li Z, Ziaee-Mehr A, Hashemi M, Quilichini PP, Ghestem A, Arab O, Esclapez M, Verma P, Raj A, Gozzi A, Sorrentino P, Chuang K, Perles-Barbacaru T, Viola A, Jirsa V, Bernard C (2025) Mapping global brain reconfigurations following local targeted manipulations. PNAS 122(16): e2405706122

Pompili MN, Todorova R, Boucly C, Leroux E, Wiener SI, Zugaro M (2025) Adaptive communication between cell assemblies and ‘reader’ neurons shapes flexible brain dynamics. PLoS biology 23(12): e3003505

Pompili MN, Eckmier A, Tirole M, Todorova R, Godsil BP, Jay TM (2025) Ventral Hippocampus Modulates Prefrontal Control of Background Contextual Fear After Cued Extinction. European Journal of Neuroscience 62(8): e70287

Mercier O, Quilichini PP, Magalon K, Gil F, Ghestem A, Richard F, Boudier T, Cayre M, Durbec P. (2024) Transient demyelination causes long‐term cognitive impairment, myelin alteration and network synchrony defects. Glia 72 (5), 960-981

Clawson W, Waked B, Madec T, Ghestem A, Quilichini P.P, Battaglia D, Bernard C. (2023). Perturbed Information Processing Complexity in Experimental Epilepsy. J Neurosci 43 (38) 6573-6587.

Bernard, C, Frauscher, B, Gelinas, J, Timofeev, I. (2023) Sleep, oscillations, and epilepsy. Epilepsia 00: 1–10.

Ghestem A, Pompili MN, Dipper-Wawra M, Quilichini PP, Bernard C, Ferraris M (2023) Long-term near-continuous recording with Neuropixels probes in healthy and epileptic rats. Journal of Neural Engeneering 20 046003.

Doublet T, Ghestem A, Bernard C (2022) Deficit in observational learning in experimental epilepsy. Epilepsia 63 (12), e150-e155.

Pompili MN, Todorova R (2022) Discriminating sleep from freezing with cortical spindle oscillations. Frontiers in Neural Circuits 16: 783768

Rabuffo G, Sorrentino P, Bernard C, Jirsa V (2022) Spontaneous neuronal avalanches as a correlate of access consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology 13, 1008407.