Description du projet
Passer au crible la fonction du cervelet
Le cervelet est la structure située à l’arrière du cerveau, à l’origine du mouvement, de l’apprentissage moteur et de la cognition. Les neurones des noyaux cérébelleux profonds (DCN pour «deep cerebellar nuclei») relient le cervelet à de nombreuses régions du cerveau et participent à la motricité. Le projet DeepPop, financé par l’UE, a pour objectif de comprendre comment ces informations, qui proviennent d’autres parties du cerveau, s’intègrent dans les neurones des DCN. Les chercheurs appliqueront des techniques modernes et tiendront compte des données récentes concernant la structure des DCN pour étudier les calculs neuronaux qui sont effectués dans le cervelet. Les résultats feront progresser nos connaissances sur les systèmes sensorimoteurs et nous aideront à expliquer comment le dysfonctionnement du cervelet se traduit par un vaste éventail de pathologies.
Objectif
The cerebellum is a key structure of the central nervous system that contains more than half the neurons of the brain. It is highly conserved across vertebrates and crucial for coordinated movement, motor learning and cognition. Cerebellar dysfunction causes a wide range of motor (ataxia, dystonia) or non-motor (autism, schizophrenia) disorders. It is made of two structures: the cerebellar cortex and the Deep Cerebellar Nuclei (DCN). While the former has been thoroughly studied, the DCN - the actual output of the structure - are much less understood. Technological limitations and experimental difficulties have limited the study of DCN processing rules both at the cellular and at the population level. A multidisciplinary approach combining recent discoveries on DCN structure, modern cell type labelling strategies and optogenetics, and novel optical tools based on work performed during my first postdoctoral project (acousto-optic 2-photon imaging coupled with GRIN lenses) will address the following fundamental open questions that limit our understanding of sensorimotor systems: 1) How are inputs carrying sensorimotor information from different parts of the brain (mossy fibres (MFs) and climbing fibres (CFs)) integrated by individual DCN neurons? 2) How are CFs and MFs carrying different sensory modalities processed by DCN neurons at the neuronal and dendritic levels? And how does it relate to distinct DCN neuron subpopulations? 3) What is the dynamic of these subpopulations during a behavioural task in vivo? The outcome of the DeepPop project will provide new knowledge of the computations performed in the cerebellum, novel optical solutions to study deep brain structures and data that will be used by the wider community (e.g. modellers, theoretician, clinicians) and increase our general understanding of sensorimotor systems.
Champ scientifique
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
75794 Paris
France