Neuro-X seminar: Dr Landelle - From cortex to spinal cord: Mapping sensorimotor integration across multiple levels using neuroimaging

ABSTRACT
Utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques, my research delves into sensorimotor integration at both the brain and spinal cord levels, spanning across healthy individuals and those affected by pathological conditions. I will first present how motor and sensory information (i.e., touch, proprioception, and audition) are integrated within the brain to shape our body perception and environment in young adults and elderly. Furthermore, I will extent my presentation to the spinal cord level, a pivotal sensorimotor system component, by demonstrating that fMRI can effectively capture spinal functional levels in young adults and assess spinal damage in an elderly clinical population (Parkinson's disease). In a novel advancement, I have recently integrated simultaneous cerebro-spinal fMRI acquisition protocols into my research. The latter has unveiled the existence of functional somatotopic communication between the brain and spinal cord. These results suggest that simultaneous brain-spinal cord fMRI acquisitions hold great potential to improve the characterization of somatotopic organization in vivo at multiple levels of the human sensorimotor system.

BIO
Caroline Landelle is a post-doctoral researcher working in Prof. Doyon’s laboratory at the Neuro, McGill University, Canada. She completed her PhD in cognitive neuroscience in 2019 at Aix-Marseille University, France. There she studied sensorimotor processing at the brain level combining neuroimaging and psychophysics approaches. She then extended her investigation at the spinal levels using
advanced techniques such as simultaneous brain and spinal cord functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In her studies, she investigated various demographic groups, ranging from healthy young and older adults to individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. In addition to advancing our understanding of the role of the spinal cord and its interaction with the brain, through her research, Caroline also demonstrates that brain-spinal cord fMRI is a powerful research tool, providing better insights into the functional interplay between the human brain and spinal cord, in vivo, that can be used for both fundamental and clinical research.