Speakers > BOUVIER Julien

Equipe Circuits Neuronaux et Contrôle Moteur

Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay (Neuro-PSI)

UMR9197 - CNRS & Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Julien Bouvier completed his PhD on the developmental origin of brainstem respiratory neurons, with Dr. Gilles Fortin. For his postdoctoral training he joined the laboratory of Prof. Ole Kiehn’s at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and contributed to identify brainstem and spinal cord circuits controlling locomotion. Since 2018 he leads a team that aims at characterizing the identity, function and connectivity of brainstem and spinal cord neurons involved in the elaboration of adaptative respiratory and locomotor behaviors. Techniques used in his group include ex-vivo electrophysiology, calcium-imaging, viral-based anatomical circuit tracings, and in vivo optogenetics and behavior.

Our research addresses the cooperative roles of the brainstem and the spinal cord in elaborating integrated and adaptative motor behaviors in mouse. We focus on locomotion and breathing, exquisite model systems with privileged experimental accessibility and strong translational outcomes. The recent import of tools from developmental biology led to the identification of functional subtypes of interneurons within the executive circuits of walking or breathing, often referred to as central pattern generators or CPGs. In contrast, the neuronal circuits that stand upstream the CPGs and condition or modulate their activity remains largely elusive.

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