Best Poster Award at a Brain Conference organized by the FENS

Our postdoc Antoine Bergel has won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the conference “Dynamics of the brain: temporal aspects of computation” organized by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in June 2019 in Copenhagen. His work, entitled “Neurofunctional ultrasound reveals new insights in functional coupling between fast gamma oscillations and blood flow in behaving and sleeping rodents”, aim at investigating the role of sleep and more specifically the role of rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS). It has been hypothetized that REMS could be involved in memory consolidation.

To test this assumption, we have recorded both the vascular and electrical activity in the brain of rodents during waking states (quiet and active) and sleep phases (REMS and non-REMS). The electrical activity is recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) while the vascular activity is mapped using functional ultrasound imaging (fUS). First results have been published in Nature Communications a few months ago. Further analysis of the brain activity are being performed to investigate the potential link between the animal’s sleep and its activity in the preceeding day.

Bergel A, Deffieux T, Demené C, Tanter M, Cohen I. Local hippocampal fast gamma rhythms precede brain-wide hyperemic patterns during spontaneous rodent REM sleep. Nature Communications 2018;9:. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07752-3.

This work was supported by the ERC Advanced Grant FUSIMAGINE and by AXA Research Fund.