DisBrain

Disorders of the Brain

The DisBrain team investigates the neural mechanisms that organize social behaviour, with a particular focus on oxytocin and the representation of social space. Combining systems neuroscience in primates with whole-brain anatomy and advanced imaging, the team studies how neuromodulatory systems shape social cognition and behaviour.

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The DisBrain team investigates the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition and behaviour, with a particular interest in the neuromodulatory systems that allow the brain to adapt behaviour to the social environment.

A major focus of the team’s current research is OxytocINspace, a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy project investigating how the brain represents social space and how these representations are modulated by oxytocin. In non-human primates, the team combines wireless recordings from amygdala–hippocampal circuits with selective chemogenetic manipulation of hypothalamic oxytocin neurons. These approaches make it possible to examine neural activity during spontaneous social interactions in complex, shared environments and to determine how oxytocin influences the representation of individuals, space and social territories.

OxytocINspace : Representation of Social Space and Modulation by Oxytocin.

In parallel, the team develops anatomical approaches to characterize oxytocin systems and their targets across the brain. Whole-brain tissue clearing, molecular labelling and light-sheet microscopy provide three-dimensional maps linking cellular organization to the circuits investigated functionally.

Mapping of oxytocinergic systems and their targets in hippocampal and hypothalamic circuits.

The team hosts a latest-generation mesoSPIM light-sheet microscope and participates in the international mesoSPIM initiative, an open-source community developing advanced light-sheet microscopy for large cleared biological samples.

Publications:

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