Publications by Sylvain Crochet

Experimental and computational analysis of REM sleep distributed cortical activity in mice

Although classically Rapid-Eye Movement (REM) sleep was thought to generate desynchronized activity similar to wakefulness, it was found that some brain regions could express Slow Wave activity (SWA), a pattern which was normally typical of slow-wave sleep ...

American Physiological Society2025

Cell-class-specific orofacial motor maps in mouse neocortex

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Keita Tamura, Pol Bech Vilaseca

Cortical motor maps represent fundamental organizing principles for voluntary motor control,1 yet their underlying structure remains poorly understood, including regions of sensory2,3 and parietal cortex,4 as well as the classical frontal motor cortex. To ...

2025

Dopamine dynamics in nucleus accumbens across reward-based learning of goal-directed whisker-to-lick sensorimotor transformations in mice

Carl Petersen, Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Sylvain Crochet, Jun Huang

The synaptic and neuronal circuit mechanisms underlying reward-based learning remain to be fully determined. In the mammalian brain, dopamine release in nucleus accumbens is thought to contribute importantly to reward signals for learning and promoting syn ...

Elsevier BV2024

Cell class-specific long-range axonal projections of neurons in mouse whisker-related somatosensory cortices

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Keita Tamura, Yanqi Liu, Pol Bech Vilaseca

Long-range axonal projections of diverse classes of neocortical excitatory neurons likely contribute to brain-wide interactions processing sensory, cognitive and motor signals. Here, we performed light-sheet imaging of fluorescently labeled axons from gene ...

2024

Membrane potential dynamics of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in mouse barrel cortex during active whisker sensing

Carl Petersen, Aurélie Pala, Sylvain Crochet, Taro Kiritani, Célia Roxane Gasselin

Neocortical neurons can increasingly be divided into well-defined classes, but their activity patterns during quantified behavior remain to be fully determined. Here, we obtained membrane potential recordings from various classes of excitatory and inhibito ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

Striatal Dopamine Signals and Reward Learning

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Mauro Pulin, Yanqi Liu, Christos Sourmpis, Parviz Ghaderi, Pol Bech Vilaseca, Meriam Malekzadeh, Anthony Pierre Robert Renard, Robin François Virginien Dard

We are constantly bombarded by sensory information and constantly making decisions on how to act. In order to optimally adapt behavior, we must judge which sequences of sensory inputs and actions lead to successful outcomes in specific circumstances. Neuro ...

Oxford Univ Press2023

Distributed and specific encoding of sensory, motor, and decision information in the mouse neocortex during goal-directed behavior

Wulfram Gerstner, Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Vahid Esmaeili, Anastasiia Oryshchuk, Alireza Modirshanechi, Christos Sourmpis

Goal-directed behaviors involve coordinated activity in many cortical areas, but whether the encoding of task variables is distributed across areas or is more specifically represented in distinct areas remains unclear. Here, we compared representations of ...

Cell Press2023

Axonal and Dendritic Morphology of Excitatory Neurons in Layer 2/3 Mouse Barrel Cortex Imaged Through Whole-Brain Two-Photon Tomography and Registered to a Digital Brain Atlas

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Georgios Foustoukos, Yanqi Liu

Communication between cortical areas contributes importantly to sensory perception and cognition. On the millisecond time scale, information is signaled from one brain area to another by action potentials propagating across long-range axonal arborizations. ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2022

Learning-related congruent and incongruent changes of excitation and inhibition in distinct cortical areas

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Romain Guiet, Georgios Foustoukos, Vahid Esmaeili, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk, Yanqi Liu, Reza Asri

Excitatory and inhibitory neurons in diverse cortical regions are likely to contribute differentially to the transformation of sensory information into goal-directed motor plans. Here, we investigate the relative changes across mouse sensorimotor cortex in ...

2022

Cell Type-Specific Membrane Potential Changes in Dorsolateral Striatum Accompanying Reward-Based Sensorimotor Learning

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Tanya C Sippy

The striatum integrates sensorimotor and motivational signals, likely playing a key role in reward-based learning of goal-directed behavior. However, cell type-specific mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning remain to be precisely determined. Here, w ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2021

Cell-type-specific nicotinic input disinhibits mouse barrel cortex during active sensing

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Célia Roxane Gasselin, Benoît Hohl

Fast synaptic transmission relies upon the activation of ionotropic receptors by neurotransmitter release to evoke postsynaptic potentials. Glutamate and GABA play dominant roles in driving highly dynamic activity in synaptically connected neuronal circuit ...

CELL PRESS2021

Rapid suppression and sustained activation of distinct cortical regions for a delayed sensory-triggered motor response

Wulfram Gerstner, Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Samuel Pavio Muscinelli, Georgios Foustoukos, Vahid Esmaeili, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk, Marta Boscaglia, Yanqi Liu, Alireza Modirshanechi

The neuronal mechanisms generating a delayed motor response initiated by a sensory cue remain elusive. Here, we tracked the precise sequence of cortical activity in mice transforming a brief whisker stimulus into delayed licking using wide-field calcium im ...

2021

Projection-specific Activity of Layer 2/3 Neurons Imaged in Mouse Primary Somatosensory Barrel Cortex During a Whisker Detection Task

Sylvain Crochet

The brain processes sensory information in a context- and learning-dependent manner for adaptive behavior. Through reward-based learning, relevant sensory stimuli can become linked to execution of specific actions associated with positive outcomes. The neu ...

2020

Match Making in Sensory Cortex

Sylvain Crochet

Cortical sensory areas are supposed to encode immediate sensory inputs. In this issue of Neuron, Condylis et al. (2020) show that they can also recall information about a past event when in need of comparing two temporally segregated sensory inputs. ...

CELL PRESS2020

Cortical circuits for transforming whisker sensation into goal-directed licking

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Georgios Foustoukos, Vahid Esmaeili, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk

Animals can learn to use sensory stimuli to generate motor actions in order to obtain rewards. However, the precise neuronal circuits driving learning and execution of a specific goal-directed sensory-to-motor transformation remain to be elucidated. Here, ...

2020

Neural Circuits for Goal-Directed Sensorimotor Transformations

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Seung-Hee Lee

Precisely wired neuronal circuits process sensory information in a learning- and context-dependent manner in order to govern behavior. Simple sensory decision-making tasks in rodents are now beginning to reveal the contributions of distinct cell types and ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON2019

The Cortical States of Wakefulness

Sylvain Crochet, James Poulet

Cortical neurons process information on a background of spontaneous, ongoing activity with distinct spatiotemporal profiles defining different cortical states. During wakefulness, cortical states alter constantly in relation to behavioral context, attentio ...

2019

Diverse Long-Range Axonal Projections of Excitatory Layer 2/3 Neurons in Mouse Barrel Cortex

Carl Petersen, Aurélie Pala, Sylvain Crochet, Takayuki Yamashita, Katia Galan

2018

Reward-Based Learning Drives Rapid Sensory Signals in Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Dorsal Hippocampus Necessary for Goal-Directed Behavior

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Pierre François Philippe Le Merre, Eloïse Ludivine Charrière, Katia Galan, Vahid Esmaeili

2018

Highly Dynamic Spatiotemporal Organization of Low-Frequency Activities During Behavioral States in the Mouse Cerebral Cortex

Sylvain Crochet, Pierre François Philippe Le Merre

Although low-frequency (LF < 10 Hz) activities have been considered as a hallmark of nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, several studies have recently reported LF activities in the membrane potential of cortical neurons from different areas in awake mice. ...

Oxford University Press2017