About Dr. Xavier Leinekugel

Research interests: Using electrophysiological recordings in rats and mice from several dozens of neocortical and hippocampal neurons at the same time, we try to understand how local microcircuits are functionnally organized, interact and participate in various cognitive behaviors. Recording from immature animals, we also investigate the effects of neuronal activity on the building of cortical circuits during development.

Research projects: - examine cellular and network interactions in vitro and in vivo to identify the organization of neocortical and hippocampal circuits in adult rats. Particular emphasis is put on the synaptic interactions between pyramidal glutamatergic cells and GABAergic interneurons within the hippocampal microcircuit. - examine the spike times and patterns of activity in the hippocampus and neocortex in vivo, during various behaviors (space coding, replay of activity during sleep...) to understand information coding and storage within behaving cortical networks. - characterize and manipulate (in vitro and in vivo) the patterns of activity expressed in developing cortical structures from rats and transgenic mice conditionnally expressing mutations associated to human neuronal diseases, in order to understand the relationships between immature neuronal patterns and the building of functional adult cortical circuits.

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An updated publication record can be found here.