Emmanuel Perisse How past experiences shape future decisions

Learning from mistakes

Even fruit flies learn from their mistakes throughout their lives. In their brains, dopaminergic neurons in neural circuits of reward and punishment direct the evaluation processes, which researchers model absolutely as good or bad and relatively from best to worst.

Yet these processes are still poorly understood. Dr. Perisse combines molecular, physiological and behavioral approaches to shed light on these essential tasks. He characterizes the neural circuits involved and studies their function in encoding the absolute and relative value of experiences.

From flies to humans

Drosophila melanogaster, better known as the common fruit fly, is particularly suitable for this work. Dr. Perisse has spent over eight years trying to understand them. Over the years, researchers have supplied the otherwise relatively simple fruit fly with an extremely powerful genetic toolbox. This allows them to precisely target and study the neural networks that underlie behavior. With unprecedented cellular resolution, he identified a small number of dopaminergic reward neurons critical for the relative evaluation of negative experiences.

The ATIP-Avenir grant allows the scientist to go further in his research. He is interested in the role interactions between reward and punishment neural circuits play in encoding the absolute and relative value of experiences. If experience changes the representation of value in the brain, this means that it influences future decisions. A better understanding of this mechanism could have applications in the treatment of certain neurological disorders. For example, addiction and obesity are closely linked to dysfunctional evaluation and decision-making.