Pascal BARONE Directeur de Recherche DR2, CNRS Tél : (+33) (0)5-62-17-37-79

RESEARCH INTERESTS
My current research focuses on the neuronal process of multisensory integration and on crossmodal reorganisation following sensory deprivation.

Each sensory modality (vision, hearing, touch) are integrated at the cortical level in separated areas, each specialized in specific aspects of information processing (movement, spatiality…). Currently, we are exploring the neuronal mechanisms of visuo-auditory integration with the hypothesis that this sensory fusion can occur at early stages of sensory processing in unimodal cortical areas. Several complementary approaches are used: single unit recording in monkey cortex, anatomical studies of the cortical network involved in multisensory integration in marmoset, psychophysic in human subjects. These projects constitute a real challenge on the general belief that visual cortical processing is independent of other sensory modalities and that multisensory integration is restricted to the most elaborated aspects of perception.

In cochlear implanted deaf patients we are exploring the compensatory mechanisms and related functional reorganizations across areas of different modalities before and after recovering of auditory functions following the cochlear implantation. A cochlear implant is a neuroprosthesis that allows post-lingual adult deaf patients to understand speech through long-term adaptative processes. Because the success of rehabilitations relies on the functional plasticity in the auditory system, our project is aimed at understanding the reorganization of the cortical network involved in speech comprehension. We are developing a multidisciplinary approach at both a fundamental and a clinical levels, it encompasses behavioral and brain imaging (PET) studies in patients as well as in normal hearing subjects experimenting the simulation of the processing performed by a cochlear implant. Further, the access to congenital deaf cats will allow to develop an animal model of hearing loss to have access at a cellular level to the anatomical cortical plasticity induced by the sensory privation.

TECHNICS
Electrophysiology on behaving or anaesthetized monkey.
Neuroanatomy : anatomical tracing, immuno-histochemistry.
Psychophysic, PET brain imaging in patients

TEACHING
M2R de Neuroscience, Comportement et Cognition, Université P. Sabatier, Toulouse.
M2R de Neuropsychologie, Université P. Sabatier, Toulouse III.

COLLABORATIONS
Caroline Fonta (Cerco)
Lionel Nowak (Cerco)
Olivier Deguine (Service ORL - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse - Hôpital Purpan).
Eric Rouiller (Institute of Physiology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland).
Andrej Kral, Institut für Neurophysiologie und Pathophysiologie, Univ. Hamburg
Pascal Belin, Voice Neurocognition Laboratory, Univ. Glasgow

RESEARCH TEAM
Zoé Massida, Phd student
Kuzma Strelnikov, Postdoctoral position
Mathieu Marx, MD student.

SOME SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

	Strelnikov K., J. Rouger, Demonet JF, Lagleyre S., Fraysse B., O. Deguine and. P. Barone. Does brain activity at rest reflect adaptive strategies? Evidence from speech processing after cochlear implantation. Sous presse, Cerebral Cortex.
	Cappe, C., Morel A., Barone, P. and Rouiller E. The thalamocortical projection systems in primate: anatomical support for multisensory and sensorimotor interplay. Sous presse . Cerebral Cortex.
	Wang, Y., Celebrini, S., Trotter, Y., and Barone P. Visuo-auditory interactions in the primary visual cortex of the behaving monkey. Electrophysiological evidence. BMC Neuroscience 2008, 9:79
	Rouger, J., B. Fraysse, O. Deguine and P. Barone (2008). McGurk effects in cochlear-implanted deaf subjects. Brain Res 1188: 87-99.
	Rouger J , Lagleyre S, Deneve S , Fraysse B , Deguine O. Barone P : Evidence that cochlear implanted deaf patients are better multisensory integrators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 104 (2007) : 7295-7300.
	C. Cappe & P. Barone. Heteromodal connections supporting multisensory integration at low levels of cortical processing in the monkey.European Journal of Neuroscience (2005), 2886-2902.
	Falchier A., S. Clavagnier, P. Barone and H. Kennedy. Anatomical evidence of multimodal integration in primate striate cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 22 (2002): 5749-59.
	P. Barone, A. Batardière, K. Knoblauch and H. Kennedy. Laminar distribution of neurons in extrastriate areas projecting to visual areas V1 and V4 correlates with the hierarchical rank and indicates the operation of a distance rule. Journal of Neuroscience 20 (2000): 3263-3281.
	P. Barone, C. Dehay, M. Berland and H. Kennedy. The role of directed growth and target selection in the formation of cortical pathways: prenatal development of the projection of area V2 to V4 in the monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology 374 (1996): 1-20.
	P. Barone, C. Dehay, M. Berland, J. Bullier, and H. Kennedy: Developmental remodeling of primate visual cortical pathways. Cerebral Cortex 5 (1995): 22-37.
	J. C. Clarey, P. Barone and T.J. Imig: Functional organization of sound direction and sound pressure level in primary auditory cortex of the cat. Journal of Neurophysiology 72 (1994): 2383-2405.
	P. Barone and J.P. Joseph: Prefrontal cortex and spatial sequencing in monkey. Experimental Brain Research 78 (1989): 447-464.

KEYWORDS
Primate, Marmoset, Visual and auditory cortex. Multisensory integration. Cortico-cortical connections.
Crossmodal compensation. Sensory loss. Deafness. Cortical plasticity.

ADDRESS
Faculté de Médecine de Rangueil-Bât A3
133, route de Narbonne
31 062 TOULOUSE Cedex
FRANCE