Imaging, Brain, Neuropsychiatry (iBraiN)

Our Unit develops diagnostic tools and innovative therapies for neuropsychiatric diseases. Our unit brings together researchers, research professors, clinicians, engineers and technicians with complementary expertise in clinical research: psychiatry, neuroscience, genetics and medical imaging; as well as in basic and clinical research: physics, chemistry, radiochemistry, acoustics, mathematics, psychiatry, neurosciences, genetics and medical imaging.

Research topics :

• Neurophysiology and cognition of autism spectrum disorder
• Neurobiological basis of antidepressant resistance
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Genomics and neuronal physiopathology of intellectual disabilities and amyotrophic lateral disorder
• Development of molecular imaging methods
• In-vitro and in-vivo metabolomics
• Ultrasound imaging and therapy
• Neuromodulations (tDCS, TMS, US)
• Biomedical image and data analysis
• Ground truth (anatomy, test object) and atlas creation

Equipment and technology:

• Technical platform for cell biology: Primary cell culture room; Miltenyi Biotech, GentleMACS Dissociator; Leica MZ95 stereomicroscope; Leica CTR 5500 B confocal microscope; Evos M5000 microscope with onstage incubator
• High-frequency and high-resolution digital Vevo F2 ultrasound imaging platform (Visualsonics)
• Aixplorer ultrasound system (Supersonic imagine)
• MicroPET/CT imaging (IRIS and IRIS-XL, Inviscan)
• Radiotelemetry devices for locomotor activity, ECG, Arterial blood pressure, EMG
• Behavioral testing for cognition and emotion: Videotracking (Ethovision)
• Stereotaxic surgery
• Optogenetic devices (Prizmatix)
• In vivo Calcium imaging (nVoke)
• 32 channels in-vivo electrophysiology (Axona)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS, Animal), MagVenture
• Image/signal processing tools
• 3 Eye tracking systems (1 FaceLab, 2 SMI RED500)
• Mobile eye tracking glasses (SMI)
• 2 EEG-ERPs 64-channels recording systems (Compumedics Curry 7, Biosemi ActiveTwo)
• A neuro-vegetative recording system (Biopac MP36)
• An ecological neuro-vegetative recording system (Phymep)
• Emotional response recording system using Experience Sampling Method (ESM, Ipod)
• A video network acquisition system connected to every unit of the department (12 HD cameras, video database, Povitech Archive)
• A bioclinical database (Oracle database)
• 3D printers
• Access to equipment of animal facilities platform and Analysis of Biological Systems platform
• Access to PIXANIM/INRAe equipment
• Access to CIC-IT/CHU Tours equipment
• Access to CERRP equipment
• Time slots for research on the 3T MRI at the CHU Tours.