Decision and adaptation (DECAD)

The main scope of our research is to understand the cognitive and neural bases of adaptive decision-making. Successful adaptation to complex and dynamic environments requires flexible use of our current knowledge about the world, including our ability to predict and control events under changing circumstances. These processes can be readily modelled and studied in rodents using approaches founded in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. By employing both descriptive and functional neuroanatomical techniques (viral vectors, chemogenetics), we aim to understand the interplay between cortical and subcortical brain regions in such adaptive cognition. Ultimately, our research will elucidate the foundations of decision-making in the mammalian brain, both in normal and pathological conditions.

Selected publications

Piquet R, Faugère A, Parkes SL (2024) A hippocampo-cortical pathway detects changes in the validity of an action as a predictor of reward. Curr Biol 34:24-35.e4.
Wolff M, Halassa MM (2024) The mediodorsal thalamus in executive control. Neuron 112:893–908.

Piccin A, Plat H, Wolff M, Coutureau E (2024) Adaptive Responding to Stimulus-Outcome Associations Requires

Cerpa JC, Piccin A, Dehove M, Lavigne M, Kremer EJ, Wolff M, Parkes SL, Coutureau E (2023) Inhibition of noradrenergic signalling in rodent orbitofrontal cortex impairs the updating of goal-directed actions. Elife 12:e81623.
Fournier M-L, Faugere A, Barba-Vila O, Le Moine C (2023) Male and female rats show opiate withdrawal-induced place aversion and extinction in a Y-maze paradigm. Behav Brain Res 437:114122.
Piquet R, Faugère A, Parkes SL (2023) Contribution of dorsal versus ventral hippocampus to the hierarchical modulation of goal-directed actions in rats. European Journal of Neuroscience 58:3737–3750.
Morceau S, Faugère A, Coutureau E, Wolff M (2022) The mediodorsal thalamus supports adaptive responding based on stimulus-outcome associations. Curr Res Neurobiol 3:100057.