The Cerebral Dynamics, Plasticity and Learning research group is an interdisciplinary team composed of theoreticians and experimentalists.
Our research addresses the functions and dysfunctions of neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex (visual, motor, frontal), the cerebellum and the basal ganglia (Parkinson disease, dystonias, autism, absence epilepsy).

Our work deals with systems at different levels of analysis, from synapses to neurons and from neurons to networks and interacting structures.

The theoretical works of the team rely on analytical calculations and numerical simulations of models that we investigate using techniques drawn from theoretical physics (e.g. statistical mechanics, bifurcation theory, extended nonlinear dynamical systems), information theory and stochastic processes theory. Our experimental works investigate neuronal activity using extracellular recordings in vivo (song bird), or patch-clamp in slices (cerebellum). We combine those electrophysiological methods with optogenetics and anatomical techniques including immunohistochemistry, neuronal tracing and counter-staining coloration.

For a true interdisciplinary research it is essential to report on our data, discuss papers and educate all our students in our different fields of expertise. Our team meets every week – from early September to end of July – for a general “group meeting”. We have also more specialized meetings: the “songbird journal club” and the “Integrate-or-fired” club which is a forum dedicated to tutorials on theoretical methods.

Themes of research

• Role of membrane receptors and channels in the development and plasticity of the cerebellum with a particular focus on the role of the cerebellum in the etiology of autism.
• Mechanistic aspects and functional implications of synaptic plasticity (short-term, long-term and structural) for collective network dynamics.
• Cellular and network mechanisms underlying synchronous activity and wave propagation in large neuronal ensembles.
• Emergence of the functional properties of neurons in the motor, visual and frontal cortices, basal ganglia and the cerebellum.
• Collective dynamics in the prefrontal cortex and and their role in working memory.
• Dynamics of the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop its role in decision making and sensorimotor learning (e.g. song learning in birds) and its dysfunctions.
• Decision making and variability in behavior in experimentally controlled situations as well as in natural ones.
• Deciphering brain oxytocin circuits controlling social behavior. (Press release)

Symposia Series 

Our team organizes one day symposia on open questions in neuroscience.

Weekly group meeting

Our team organizes weekly meetings, you can access the schedule and reading list here.

Integrate-or-fired club

The biweekly Integrate-or-fired meeting dedicated to the discussion of purely theoretical topics. The schedule can be found here.

Collaborations

We collaborate with colleagues from France (Bordeaux, Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nice) and abroad (Jerusalem, Kyoto,Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Vienna, Winston-Salem).

Our team is a pivotal component of the France Israel Laboratory in Neuroscience (FILN).

Recent Publications

Articles

• A long journey into reproducible computational neuroscience.
  Topalidou M, Leblois A, Boraud T, Rougier NP : Front Comput Neurosci, 2015
• Asynchronous Rate Chaos in Spiking Neuronal Circuits.
  Harish O, Hansel D : PLoS Comput Biol, 2015
• Modulation of Network Excitability by Persistent Activity: How Working Memory Affects the Response to Incoming Stimuli
  Tartaglia EM, Brunel N, Mongillo G : PLoS Comput Biol, 2015
• Stimulus dependence of local field potential spectra: experiment versus theory.
  Barbieri F, Mazzoni A, Logothetis NK, Panzeri S, Brunel N : J Neurosci, 2014
• PTU-induced hypothyroidism in rats leads to several early neuropathological signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the hippocampus and spatial memory impairments.
  Chaalal A, Poirier R, Blum D, Gillet B, Le Blanc P, Basquin M, Buée L, Laroche S, Enderlin V : Hippocampus, 2014
• On the relationship between persistent delay activity, repetitionenhancement and priming
  Tartaglia EM, Mongillo G, Brunel N : Front Psychol, 2014
• Interference and Shaping in Sensorimotor Adaptations with rewards.
  Darshan R, Leblois A, Hansel D : PLoS Comput Biol, 2014
• Type 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu1) trigger the gating of GluD2 delta glutamate receptors
  Ady V, Perroy J, Tricoire L, Piochon C, Dadak S, Chen X, Dusart I, Fagni L, Lambolez B, Levenes C : EMBO Rep, 2014
• The Misbehavior of Reinforcement Learning
  Mongillo G, Shteingart H, Loewenstein Y : Proceedings of the IEEE, 2014
• The dendritic location of the L-type current and its deactivation by the somatic AHP current both contribute to firing bistability in motoneurons
  Manuel M, Zytnicki D, Meunier C : Front Comput Neurosci, 2014
• Modified impact of emotion on temporal discrimination in a transgenic rat model of Huntington disease.
  Faure A, Es-Seddiqi M, Brown BL, Nguyen HP, Riess O, von Hörsten S, Le Blanc P, Desvignes N, Bozon B, El Massioui N, Doyère V : Front Behav Neurosci, 2013
• Zif268/Egr1 gain of function facilitates hippocampal synaptic plasticity and long-term spatial recognition memory.
  Penke Z, Morice E, Veyrac A, Gros A, Chagneau C, LeBlanc P, Samson N, Baumgärtel K, Mansuy IM, Davis S, Laroche S : Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2013
• Impact of spike train autostructure on probability distribution of joint spike events.
  Pipa G, Grün S, van Vreeswijk C : Neural Comput, 2013
• Pointing to oneself : active versus passive proprioception revisited and implications for internal models of motor system function
  Capaday C, Darling WG, Stanek K, van Vreeswijk C : Exp Brain Res, 2013
• On the functional organization and operational principles of the Motor Cortex
  Capaday C, Ethier C, Darling WG, van Vreeswijk C : Front Neural Circuits, 2013
• Social modulation of learned behavior by dopamine in the basal ganglia : insights from songbirds.
  Leblois A : J Physiol Paris, 2013
• Interaction between cognitive and motor cortico-basal ganglia loops during decision making : a computational study.
  Guthrie M, Leblois A, Garenne A, Boraud T : J Neurophysiol, 2013
• Short-term plasticity explains irregular persistent activity in working memory tasks.
  Hansel D, Mato G : J Neurosci, 2013
• Upregulation of brain utrophin does not rescue behavioral alterations in dystrophin-deficient mice.
  Perronnet C, Chagneau C, Le Blanc P, Samson-Desvignes N, Mornet D, Laroche S, De La Porte S, Vaillend C : Hum Mol Genet, 2012
• The mechanism of orientation selectivity in primary visual cortex without a functional map.
  Hansel D, van Vreeswijk C : J Neurosci, 2012
• Bistability and spatiotemporal irregularity in neuronal networks with nonlinear synaptic transmission
  Mongillo G, Hansel D, van Vreeswijk C : Phys Rev Lett, 2012
• The role of Pulvinar in the Transmission of Information in the Visual Hierarchy
  Cortes N, van Vreeswijk C : Front Comput Neurosci, 2012
• Striatal dopamine modulates song spectral but not temporal features through D1 receptors
  Leblois A, Perkel DJ : Eur J Neurosci, 2012

Communication orale

• Confidence levels during perceptual decision-making are discrete (PDF)
  Gorea A, Lisi M & Mongillo G : European Conference on Visual Perception, Barcelona, Spain, 2017