Mechanisms of perceptual decision-making in neuropsychiatric disorders: From sensory processing to social salience
Ourania SEMELIDOU
ATIP-Avenir Application
2024 NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee
Cortical Plasticity Group, Neurocentre Magendie – Bordeaux

Abstract
Touch is fundamental for interacting with the world, and atypical tactile experience is a hallmark of autism that profoundly impacts daily life. Yet, the neural mechanisms of fine tactile perception and their alterations in autism remain poorly understood. In my postdoctoral work, I developed a translational framework that combines a perceptual decision-making task to assess tactile detection with in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to probe neuronal-perceptual changes in autism. This approach revealed that tactile hyposensitivity in the Fmr1-/y mouse model of autism arises from reduced single-neuron signal-to noise ratio in the primary somatosensory cortex that leads to weak population encoding of tactile stimuli and their detection.
Building on this foundation, I developed a novel behavioral task to study social perception. This work forms the cornerstone of my independent research program, which aims to uncover the neural mechanisms of social perception and their alterations across neuropsychiatric conditions.

Invited by Rosa Cossart
Monday September 8th at 11am, Inmed conference room