Inserm U.797 Research Unit
« Neuroimaging & psychiatry »
Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot
4 place Gl. Leclerc
91401 Orsay Cedex
France
http://w3.u-psud.fr/AR/52.fr.html
Project Leader
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Prof. Dr. Jean-Luc Martinot Phone: +33 (0) 1 69 86 77 57 Fax: +33 (0) 1 69 86 78 10  Contact |
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Project Staff
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Monica Zilbovicius: DR2 Inserm, MD, PhD |
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Eric Artiges: CR1 Inserm, MD, PhD |
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Francis Brunelle: Professor, Head of radiology department, Necker Hospital, MD PhD, APHP, Paris. |
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Nathalie Boddaert: Assistant of radiology, Necker Hospital, APHP, MD, PhD, Paris |
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Marie-Laure Paillère: Psychiatrist, Cochin Hospital Paris, APHP, MD, PhD |
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Christian Trichard: Psychiatrist, Orsay Hospital , MD, PhD |
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Arnaud Cachia: image analysis researcher, CDD Inserm. |
Institute Presentation
INSERM U797
The INSERM U.797 Research Unit involves a team of physicians and researchers trained to investigate juvenile or adult healthy subjects and patients with brain disorders and genetic conditions for more than fifteen years. It also includes ingeeners experienced in brain image transfert, storage and analysis. The INSERM U797Unit is a partner in Neurospin, where high field MR research facilities (Siemens 3T MRI Trio) is available.
Also, the INSERM Unit U797 has dedicated research facilities within: -1/ the Pediatric Radiology Department at Necker pediatric hospital, Paris (Pr F Brunelle, Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris), a department experienced in brain scanning young patients or healthy children and adolescents; and -2/ within the Department of Adolescent medicine, Cochin hospital, Paris (Pr M. Rufo, Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Maison de Solenn), a new department devoted to psychological and medical evaluation of adolescents, which has a partnership with the local education system (college- and high-schools).
Major research activities
The INSERM U.797 research unit was created officially in 2002, and is affiliated to the University Paris Sud (Orsay) and to the University Paris Descartes (Paris). The aim the unit is to relate brain imaging methods, clinical characterisation and genetic variables to investigate the cerebral characteristics of volunteers with respect to psychopathology. Studies are performed in juvenile and adult subjects, either healthy, or with autism, or disorders with onset at adolescence, notably addictions, schizophrenia, depression. Also, comparison with affective disorders, neurogenetic syndromes, and alcoholism allows more thorough specification of the variations detected. We use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) to explore cerebral morphology, function, and neurochemistry. Examples of findings are reported below.
Summary of experience relevant to IMAGEN
Structural brain imaging:
Alcoholism. Voxel-based morphometry revealed a marked reduction in grey matter volume in bilateral frontal and medial frontal cortices of patients, and diffusion tensor imaging abormalities were related to neuropsychological performance deficit. Relationship between age at first massive intake of alcohol and regional volumetry suggest interaction between alcohol and brain maturation at adolescence.
MRI suggest that autism is associated with bilateral anatomical abnormalities localized in the temporal cortex and are consistent with functional hypoperfusion previously reported in children with autism.
Schizophrenia. Morphometric abnormalities suggest brain maturation in the (para)cingulate area may be a vulnerability factor for psychopathology.
Functional brain imaging
Main findings by our group involve: 1) detection of localized functional abnormalities in cerebral blood flow or metabolism measured with PET at rest; 2) characterization of abnormal patterns of cortical activation using functional MRI and PET.
Autism. The data provide new outlook in autism’s understanding, arguing a deficit in brain areas involved in perception of socially relevant stimuli. Schizophrenia. Results highlights the left superior temporal cortex as a region of interest for targeting new experimental therapeutics.
Imaging brain chemistry in vivo. Positron tomography and dopaminergic function. Depressed patients with blunted affect had regional 18F-fluorodopa uptake decreases suggesting a link between hypodopaminergia and affective blunting. Conversely, the depressed patients with irrritability had decreased 18F-fluorodopa uptake in the cingulate cortex and hypothalamus, suggesting impaired hypothalamic inhibition in the neurovegetative system, and a dysfunction in cingulate control.
On the whole, functional anomalies in alcohol-dependents, autism, schizophrenia, and some depressive states appeared superimposed with subtle but significant morphometric changes, supporting the hypothesis of a neurodevelopmental factor in each of these disorders. Findings highlight circumscribed brain regions linked to the pathophysiology of the disorders in a neurodevelopmental perspective. Brain neurodevelopement at adolescence can be studied prospectively in adolescents included in the IMAGEN cohort.
Five publications:
Houenou, J., Wessa, M., Douaud, G., Leboyer, M., Chanraud, S., Perrin, M., Poupon, C., Martinot, J.-L. & Paillère-Martinot, M.-L. (2007). Increased white matter connectivity in euthymic bipolar patients: Diffusion tensor tractography between the subgenual cingulate and the amygdalo-hippocampal complex. Molecular Psychiatry 2007; [Epub ahead of print]).
Wessa, M., Houenou, J., Paillère-Martinot, M.L., Berthoz, S., Leboyer, M., Martinot, JL. Increased frontal-striatal activation during response inhibition to emotional faces in euthymic bipolar disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 2007 164: 638-46.
Zilbovicius M, Meresse I, Chabane N, Brunelle F, Samson Y, Boddaert N. Autism, the superior temporal sulcus and social perception. Trends Neurosci. 2006 29:359-66.
Gervais H, Belin P, Boddaert N, Leboyer M, Coez A, Sfaello I, Barthelemy C, Brunelle F, Samson Y, Zilbovicius M. Abnormal cortical voice processing in autism. Nat Neurosci 2004 7: 801-2.
Dehaene S, Artiges E, Naccache L, Martelli C, Viard A, Schurhoff F, Recasens C, Martinot ML, Leboyer M, Martinot JL. Conscious and subliminal conflicts in normal subjects and patients with schizophrenia: the role of the anterior cingulate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 100 : 13722-7
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