> Current Projects

Note: Lab members work on several projects simultaneously, using different techniques. Team work between undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students is strongly encouraged. General guidelines for labmembers conduct and training can be found here.

• Multigoal complex spatial navigation in rats (in vivo): Optimal spatial navigation, traveling sales person problem, navigation in large environments, role of the dorso-ventral axis of the hippocampus. Behavioral, optogenetic and electrophysiological studies and rat-robot interactions.
• Memory reconsolidation in rats (in vivo): Study of high-order spatial learning in rats. Influence of learning strategies and role of sleep. Connectionist model. Focus on CA1 and mPFC.
• Rodent model of empathy (in vivo): Behavioral, pharmacological and electrophysiological studies. Prosocial behaviors. Focus on the Insular Cortex.
• Rodent model of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (in vivo): Behavioral, electrophysiological and pharmacological studies in behaving animals. Exploration of the effect of oxytocin, social bonding and other drugs (e.g. paroxetine, clozapine) on the induction and/or maintenance of PTSD.

Note: Lab protocols and procedures are described elsewhere.

Other or older (not so active right now...) projects

3D localization of neurons from extracellular recordings (computational): In collaboration with prof. K.Lin.

Computational model of the place/grid cell system (computational). In collaboration with prof. O. Koyluoglu.

Face perception (psychophysical and computational): What are the relevant facial features used for the perception of sex, emotional expressions and other information. In collaboration with prof. L. Zebrowitz (Brandeis University).

Role of the VTA in memory consolidation and extinction (in vivo): Study of VTA during sleep, during simple learning paradigms followed by extinction.

Hippocampus-VTA Interactions (in vivo): Study of ensemble dynamics of hippocampal and VTA cell populations during a rewarded spatial task. Multi-units recordings in the behaving and sleeping rat. Study of place fields and spike patterns. Reactivation during sleep. Optimal spatial navigation in the 'traveling salesman/salesperson problem'.

Model of the dorso-ventral axis of the hippocampal formation (computational and experimental): How are the grid and place cells spatial scales organized, and why. In collaboration with prof K. Lin.

Spike train metrics (computational): Study of efficient and useful spike train metrics.

Dynamic Synapse (computational model): Study of the reliability of spike timing through unreliable stochastic synapses using biophysical models of reconstructed hippocampal cells.

Neuromodulation of Spike Timing and Spike Patterns (in vitro): Study of the dependence of spike time reliability on the activation of neuromodulatory inputs in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in vitro placed in simulated in vivo conditions. Slice preparation under dynamic and reactive clamp.

Up and Down States, Cortical Songs and Motifs (computational model): Study of the propagation and reverberation of neural activity in large networks of neurons, with realistic synaptic noise and realistic unreliable synaptic transmission.