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Paris Brain Institute •

World Brain Health Forum 2026

Neurological and psychiatric disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide and the second leadingcause of death. Population ageing further amplifies this burden, as the prevalence of certain conditions—such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and stroke—increases with age. The rapid rise in dementia cases, in particular, represents a ticking time bomb for our societies.
Institut du Cerveau •

Benefits of psychedelics in obsessive-compulsive disorder: looking for evidence

In recent years, interest in psychedelics and their possible benefit in treating psychiatric illnesses has been revived. Expectations are high, especially in obsessive-compulsive disorder, where patients’ therapeutic options are still limited. At Paris Brain Institute, Anne Buot, Luc Mallet (AP-HP), and their colleagues are gathering evidence that could pave the way for large-scale clinical trials.
Paris Brain Institute •

Brain dynamics of the "wave of death" highlighted for the first time

When brain oxygenation is cut off for a prolonged period, the electrical activity of the cerebral cortex is quickly reduced to zero. But that’s not the end of the story… Researchers at Paris Brain Institute, coordinated by Séverine Mahon, have shown that a “wave of death” appearing on the flat electroencephalogram is initiated deep in the cortex. It slowly spreads in this brain region until consciousness is finally extinguished, but it does not always signify permanent death.
Paris Brain Institute •

Study finds we can respond to verbal stimuli while sleeping

Sleep is not a state in which we are completely isolated from our environment: while we sleep, we are capable of hearing and understanding words. These observations, the result of close collaboration between teams at Paris Brain Institute and the Sleep Pathology Department at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris, call into question the very definition of sleep and the clinical criteria that make it possible to distinguish between its different stages.
Paris Brain Institute •

Multiple sclerosis: New study highlights five warning signs of the disease

What if the biological mechanisms that cause multiple sclerosis were triggered years before clinical diagnosis? This is what a team at Paris Brain Institute suggests in a new study published in Neurology. The researchers show that, on a population scale, the frequency of disorders such as depression, constipation, and urinary tract infections is associated with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis five years later. These results outline a prodromal phase of the disease, but at this stage, they do not allow for the development of an early detection technique.
Paris Brain Institute •

Probing the unimaginable: New data help to understand the nature of aphantasia

"Think of a white sandy beach on a paradise island. Can you see it?" The ability to visualize a place, object, or place on request varies significantly between individuals. But some people cannot conjure up mental images at all: This trait is known as aphantasia, literally "a defect of imagination." Aphantasia is not a disorder of the mind but an astonishing cognitive peculiarity that could help us understand how visual mental imagery works.
Paris Brain Institute •

The art of wandering in vertebrates: New mapping of neurons involved in locomotion

Walking is a complex mechanism involving both automatic processes and conscious control. Its dysfunction can have multiple, sometimes extremely subtle causes, within the motor cortex, brain stem, spinal cord, or muscles. At Paris Brain Institute, Martin Carbo-Tano, Mathilde Lapoix, and their colleagues in the "Spinal Sensory Signaling" team, led by Claire Wyart (Inserm), have focused on a specific component of locomotion: forward propulsion.
Paris Brain Institute •

One, two, many, a lot: Fruit flies can discriminate between numerical quantities

Assessing a number of elements, whether individuals in a group, twigs in a nest, or fruit on a branch, is an essential skill in many animals. But the neural circuits on which it is based are still poorly understood. To remedy this lack of knowledge, Mercedes Bengochea and her colleagues at Paris Brain Institute have developed a model of numerical cognition in fruit flies. Their results show that these insects can discriminate between sets containing different numbers of objects and spontaneously show a preference for larger numbers. This numerical judgment requires the activation of specific neurons, the LC11s.
Paris Brain Institute •

Abnormalities in neurodevelopment could lay the foundations for Alzheimer's disease

What if Alzheimer's disease left its mark on the embryo? Khadijeh Shabani and her colleagues from the Brain Development team led by Bassem Hassan (Inserm) at Paris Brain Institute show that the amyloid precursor protein (APP) has a specific biological role during neurodevelopment. It delays the onset of neurogenesis, i.e., the differentiation of stem cells into different nerve cell lineages.
Paris Brain Institute •

New model of multiple sclerosis correlates demyelination with evolution of cognitive and motor abilities

No treatment currently exists that can stop the silent progression of multiple sclerosis, and many promising drugs have proved ineffective in clinical trials. To reduce this failure rate and better predict the potential of candidate molecules, researchers at Paris Brain Institute, coordinated by Bernard Zalc, have developed a new model of the disease described in Brain.
Paris Brain Institute •

In bilingual readers, the visual cortex processes Latin and Chinese characters differently

Like musicians who can play several instruments and read different types of musical notation, people who regularly read in two languages have developed a remarkable ability to navigate from one linguistic universe to another. This capacity is even more fascinating among those who master several writing systems: Roman, Georgian, or Hebrew alphabets, Japanese kanji, Chinese ideograms, Arabic diacritics... the world's languages each have their way of transcribing sounds and meanings. But how does this reading agility develop in the brain?
Paris Brain Institute •

A subtitled world: Uncovering the secrets of tickertape synesthesia

The anthropologist Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin, was interested in the most notable faculties of the human mind. In 1883, he observed that some people visualized the speech of their interlocutor in their internal mental space. "Some few people see mentally in print every word that is uttered […], and they read them off usually as from a long imaginary strip of paper, such as is unwound from telegraphic instruments".

Communication institutionnelle et corporate

Inserm •

Rapport d'activité 2020

Au-delà de la Covid-19, et en dépit de la restriction
des activités exigée par les épisodes successifs de
confinement, notre recherche en santé a continué dans
tous les domaines où répondre aux questions médicales est une nécessité permanente, indépendamment de l’actualité. Dans les 300 laboratoires de recherche Inserm, les femmes et hommes chercheurs, ingénieurs, techniciens et administratifs ont démultiplié leurs efforts pour que les recherches fondamentale, clinique et technologique continuent de produire activement de la connaissance.
Inserm •

Les avanceés scientifiques 2020

L'année 2020 a été hors norme par bien des aspects.
La pandémie de Covid-19 a bouleversé nos manières de
vivre, de travailler, mais aussi de penser l’avenir, et ce dans le monde entier. Cette crise sanitaire majeure a mis au premier plan la méthode scientifique, la seule qui soit en mesure de réduire l’incertitude pas à pas pour éclairer un tel événement, qui nous a d’abord frappés par son aspect explosif et soudain. L’irruption du
SARS-CoV-2 a rappelé à quel point une recherche biomédicale de pointe, réactive et bien coordonnée est nécessaire pour anticiper et répondre aux défis des sociétés contemporaines, qui ne nous laissent
que peu de temps pour nous adapter.
Inserm •

Les avancées scientifiques 2021

La mission de l’Inserm, fidèle à sa devise « la science pour la santé », est d’accroître les connaissances sur le vivant et la santé humaine. Nous savons aujourd’hui à quel point une recherche de pointe est nécessaire pour conserver la capacité à agir sur les menaces sanitaires immédiates, mais aussi pour anticiper l’avenir : outre les maladies infectieuses émergentes, notre santé est éprouvée par des changements environnementaux, climatiques et démographiques dont nous ressentons les effets au quotidien. Cette dynamique exige d’explorer quantité d’hypothèses de recherche, et de produire des données fiables pour déterminer, avec un haut niveau de confiance, quelles pistes sont à privilégier. L’Inserm est fier d’avoir mené ce travail tout au long de l’année 2021, en collaboration avec ses partenaires nationaux et internationaux, en défendant une science intègre, rigoureuse et indépendante.
L'Oréal •

L'Oréal Rapport Annuel | La révolution des Sciences Vertes

Chez L’Oréal, la science tient depuis toujours une place à part. C’est le cœur battant du Groupe, le berceau de l’innovation et le garant absolu de la sécurité et de la qualité de ses produits depuis plus d’un siècle. La Recherche & Innovation saisit toutes les opportunités de la double révolution de la science et de la technologie pour créer une beauté toujours plus performante, inclusive et durable, en révolutionnant ses formules par les Sciences Vertes.