Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology

Constance Hammond is an INSERM director of research at the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology. A renowned Parkinson's disease investigator, in 2012 she became a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in recognition for her services to scientific communication. Studying biology at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris she completed her thesis in neurosciences at the Marey Institute in Paris, directed by Prof. D. Albe-Fessard. Guided by her curiosity and her constant desire to learn, she changed lab and research domains several times. With the knowledge of other systems and the mastering of other techniques she finally came back to her first and preferred subject of research; the role of the subthalamic nucleus in the basal ganglia system in health and Parkinson's disease.

1. Neurons
2. Neuron-glial cell cooperation
3. Ionic gradients
4. How to record neuronal activity (+ films)
5. The voltage-gated channels of Na action potentials
6. The voltage-gated channels of Ca action potentials
7. The chemical synapses
8. Neurotransmitter release (+ animations)
9. The ionotropic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
10. The ionotropic GABA-A receptor (+ films)
11. The ionotropic glutamate receptors (+ films)
12. The ionotropic receptors of sensory transduction : example of TRP channels
13. The metabotropic GABAB receptors
14. The metabotropic glutamate receptors
15. The metabotropic receptors for sensory transduction : example of olfatory receptors
16. Somato-dendritic processing of postsynaptic potentials I
17. Subliminal voltage-gated currents of the somato dendritic membrane
18. Somato-dendritic processing of postsynaptic potentials II
19. Somato-dendritic processing of postsynaptic potentials III
20. Firing patterns of neurons
21. Synaptic plasticity
22. The development of the hippocampal network
23. The adult hippocampal network
24. Exercises