Overview

Our team investigates the neural activity occurring during sleep that underlies the normal and pathological processing of emotional memories and anxiety. Our research currently focuses on the interactions between the hippocampus, crucially involved in episodic and spatial memory, and the amygdala, one of the main structures in the network that processes emotions. We want to understand how an emotion is associated to a specific context or event, and how this association is strengthened or weakened during sleep.

Techniques

• Large scale in vivo recordings in freely behaving rodents using multi-site electrodes allowing for the collection of local field potentials (LFPs) and individual spikes of large neuronal populations.
• In vivo optogenetic manipulations of neuronal networks
• Closed-loop recording/manipulation systems where the automatic detection of a neural pattern triggers a perturbation of neural networks in real time.
• Classical and custom rodent behavioral protocols.
• Custom coding for large neuronal data analysis (Matlab)

Team composition

Team Leader : Gabrielle Girardeau (CRCN Inserm, ATIP-Avenir)
• Billel Khouader, PhD student
• Facundo Morici, Post-doc
• Eléonore Pronier, PhD student
• Elise Morice, MC SU
• Anna Ternon, PhD student (ENS)
• Maëlle Christiaens (ENS intern)

Website : girardeaulab.org