The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases
20 December 2018
Section of a mouse brain showing in red the circuit that reinforces the behaviour, in green the circuit that reinforces the decision to continue. If the green projection is very active, the mice self-stimulate their red projection despite negative consequences. Read more…
2 November 2018
Photo illustrating dopaminergic neurons (in red). In green, are dopaminergic neurons that have been activated by heroin. In blue, a marking of the nuclei of the cells. © UNIGE Addiction refers to the repeated and irrepressible desire to do or Read more…
3 April 2017
The blue light activates the iTango system. Mouse implanted with an optical fiber that directs light to the parts of the brain involved in the addictive behavior. Swiss and American researchers are developing a technique of unprecedented precision to visualize Read more…
12 December 2016
Andrea Volterra & Christian Lüscher The Theodore Ott Award 2017 will be granted to two researchers for their remarkable works in neurosciences : Prof. Andrea Volterra from the Lausanne university. His group explores the central role, long ignored, of astrocytes Read more…
26 June 2016
The Betty and David Koetser Foundation for research on the brain rewards this year Christian Lüscher, Professor at the Department of fundamental neurosciences of the Faculty of Medicine at UNIGE (his group web page). Professor Lüscher, a specialist of neural Read more…
22 June 2016
The autism spectrum disorders are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders whose main characteristic alterations in social communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. If the assumptions to identify alterations in brain circuits that could be responsible for autism disorders are Read more…
9 June 2015
Professor Christian Lüscher from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and a NCCR Synapsy member joins the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) The senate of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences has appointed Professor Lüscher as individual member of the Read more…
6 February 2015
Borrowing ideas from optogenetics, which uses light to control neurons, Christian Lüscher and colleagues have developed a combination therapy to treat cocaine-induced behaviors in mice. Recent research has shown that it may be possible to use optogenetics to reverse cocaine-related Read more…
7 October 2013
New results from Christian Lüscher and his group show that cocaine not only acts on excitatory transmission but also affects inhibitory transmission provoking loss of an intrinsic brake in the brain. Cocaine-evoked synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens and the Read more…
