PhD, Team Leader, PI, CNRS
Team presentation
The human brain contains billions of neurons connected by an even greater number of synapses. A central challenge in neuroscience is to understand how activity within these vast networks gives rise to perception and behavior. Our laboratory studies the cellular and circuit mechanisms that support sensory perception, with a particular emphasis on how context and internal brain state shape the way sensory information is processed.
Sensory processing during wakefulness unfolds under constantly changing conditions—from the low arousal of quiet mind-wandering to the heightened vigilance required for precise, goal-directed actions. Yet sensory systems remain highly adaptive, flexibly adjusting how incoming information is encoded depending on context and state. This state-dependent flexibility is a hallmark of healthy cortical computation. When it is disrupted, it is linked to neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and depression. The cellular and synaptic mechanisms that enable this flexibility, however, are still not fully understood.
To tackle these questions, we combine experimental and computational approaches, including electrophysiology, two-photon calcium imaging, optogenetics (in vivo and in vitro), and computational modeling. Our work focuses primarily on mouse primary visual and somatosensory cortex, where we aim to identify new cellular and synaptic mechanisms that govern cortical information processing.
Ultimately, we seek to determine how these mechanisms are altered in pathological brain states and to pinpoint molecular and circuit-level targets that could inform future therapeutic strategies.
Main publications
- Rebola N, Reva M, Kirizs T, Szoboszlay M, Lorincz A, Moneron G, Nusser Z, DiGregorio DA, Distinct Nanoscale Calcium Channel and Synaptic Vesicle Topographies Contribute to the Diversity of Synaptic Function. Neuron 2019, (in press)
- Carta, M., Srikumar, S.N, Gorlewicz, A., Rebola, N* and Mulle C* Activity-dependent control of NMDA receptor subunit composition at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses. J. Physiol (*-Co-last authors)
- Rebola N, Carta M, Mulle C, Operation and plasticity of hippocampal CA3 circuits: implications for memory encoding. Nat, Rev. Neurosci. 2017 Apr;18(4):208-220.
- Vergnano AM*, Rebola N*, Savtchenko L*, Casado M, Kieffer B, Rusakov D, Mulle C and Paoletti P, Zinc dynamics and action at excitatory synapses, Neuron 2014, 82(5):1101-14. *-Co-first authors
- Carta M*, Lanore F*, Rebola N*, Szabo Z, Viana Da Silva S, Lourenço J, Verraes A, Nadler A, Schultz C, Blanchet C, Mulle, C. Membrane lipids tune synaptic transmission by direct modulation of presynaptic potassium channels, Neuron. 2014, 81(4):787-99. *-Co-first authors
- Rebola N, Carta M, Lanore F, Blanchet C, Mulle C. NMDA receptor-dependent metaplasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses. Nature Neurosci. 2011Jun.;14(6):691–3.
- Rebola N, Luján R, Cunha RA, Mulle C. Adenosine A2A Receptors Are Essential for Long-Term Potentiation of NMDA-EPSCs at Hippocampal Mossy Fiber Synapses. Neuron. 2008 Jan.;57(1):121–34.
- Marvin JS, Scholl B, Wilson DE, Podgorski K, Kazemipour A, Müller JA, Schoch S, Quiroz FJU, Rebola N, Bao H, Little JP, Tkachuk AN, Cai E, Hantman AW, Wang SS, DePiero VJ, Borghuis BG, Chapman ER, Dietrich D, DiGregorio DA, Fitzpatrick D, Looger LL. Stability, affinity, and chromatic variants of the glutamate sensor iGluSnFR. Nat Methods. 2018 Nov;15(11):936-939
