member

Previous page Eric BURGUIERE PhD, CR1, CNRS Team "Neurophysiology of Repetitive Behaviors" https://bebgteam.net%20 https://twitter.com/eburguiere @NERBteam

Biography

I am a neurophysiologist, interested in behavioral studies, extracellular neuronal recordings, and neuromodulation (opto-/chemo-genetics) in the rodent model. I obtained my PhD (neuroscience/cognitive science) in 2007 after a thesis at the Collège de France in the laboratory of Pr. Alain Berthoz, followed by a 5-year post-doctoral period at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Pr. Ann Graybiel. During these first years of research, I was able to learn all the tools necessary to study the neurobiological and mechanistic bases of mouse models of neuropsychiatric pathologies. However, in order to meet the challenges posed by psychiatric disorders, notably because of the heterogeneous expression of their symptoms and their transnosographic expressions, it seemed essential to me to confront my approach with clinical reality. Thus, as soon as I returned to France in 2013, I wanted to work with researchers-psychiatrists who were experts in the issues I had studied through the prism of fundamental research, in particular the repetitive and compulsive behaviors found in many psychiatric pathologies. After obtaining my position and taking up my duties in 2015, I worked to develop a translational approach which consists of conducting parallel work in human subjects, particularly psychiatric patients, and animal models. Since 2019, I have been leading a team entitled "Neurophysiology of Repetitive Behaviors" (https://nerb.team/).

Research work

The team I supervise is entitled "Neurophysiology of repetitive behaviors". We have a translational approach and access to patients and animal models suffering from pathological repetitive behaviors such as compulsions/impulsions and stereotypies. This approach allows us to reconcile the questions specific to basic research and those of clinical practice, whose issues are sometimes complementary and/or different. Our initiative has allowed us to carry out identical protocols in the patient and the animal model. The 3 main objectives of the team are : - to characterize the behavioral components that are at the origin of repetitive behaviors - to identify the brain circuits that participate in the acquisition and regulation of these repetitive behaviors - to understand how neural activity is modulated in these circuits Our research programs are based on innovative technologies that we have developed in recent years. Among them, I will present here some of them: the optogenetic brain stimulation approaches in closed loop to anticipate and prevent compulsive behaviors; the design of fully automated operating cages that allow the acquisition of thousands of trials per individual without the intervention of the experimenter; and finally the development of an accelerometric monitoring system of repeated behaviors in humans, inspired by our research in animals.