NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

Editorial by Camilla Bellone, Carmen Sandi and Philippe Conus

Dear Colleagues, It is with a profound grief that we are writing the editorial of this issue of the NCCR Synapsy Newsletter. As you certainly all know, Alexandre Dayer, the Director of the NCCR Synapsy tragically passed away on June Read more…


The Harmful Effects of Stress Unraveled – Alexandre Dayer

The 12th Synapsy newsletter is rich with interviews and portraits of students, clinical scientists and more senior researchers from the developmental stress working group of Synapsy (work package 4, WP#4). Its objective is to evaluate the long-term effect of exposure Read more…


Halfway between cell biology and patient care

Zoé Schilliger was one of the three 2019 winners of the Synapsy clinician-researcher grant. She is embarking on a PhD on anxiety that is based on the expertise of two Synapsy work packages. It is a fascinating project that combines Read more…


Anti-stress meditation

Is meditation effective as an early intervention to reduce reactivity to stress and anxiety? The Mindfulteen study investigates the question using brain imaging. Mindfulness meditation is a technique borrowed from oriental medicine that consists of training oneself to be in Read more…


Breaking the transmission of trauma

Children of mothers with post-traumatic stress disorder have difficulty processing their emotions. Defining the neural bases of this dysfunction will help develop future treatments. Transmitting information, you do not have is by its very nature a tricky, even impossible, exercise. Read more…


Making a living on two wheels and electroencephalography

Virginie Perizzolo tells us how cycling and speech therapy helped her recently graduate from the Lemanic Neuroscience Doctoral School.   What training did you do to become a doctor in neuroscience? First, I got a bachelor’s degree in speech therapy Read more…


No clinical work without understanding the basics

Silvia Monari explains the difficult choice she had to make between medicine and life sciences when deciding on what direction her studies would take. Silvia tells us how she intends to detect biomarkers of disease and possible therapeutic intervention for Read more…


Mapping the emotional management of trauma

Trauma can induce fear pathologies, which are treated using psychotherapeutic approaches whose brain pathways have recently been identified. Fear leaves traces in the brain, and remembering it causes a feeling of discomfort. During extreme trauma—such as the shock of war, Read more…


Tracking neurogliaform cells and their role in the cortical microcircuit

Studying neurogliaform-type interneurons involves the five key elements of stress-related pathologies: brain development, the prefrontal cortex, serotonergic pathway, interneurons and plasticity. Here’s how.   Experience constantly alters the activity of the brain and the structure of the neural networks. Known Read more…