Michel Thiebaut de Schotten

Institut des Maladies Neurodegeneratives | IMN · Neurofunctional imaging group (GIN)

Clinical neuroscience research relying on animal models brought valuable translational insights into the function and pathologies of the human brain. The anatomical, physiological, and behavioural similarities between humans and mammals have prompted researchers to study cerebral mechanisms at different levels to develop and test new treatments. Th...

In recent years, the field of functional neuroimaging has moved away from a pure localisationist approach of isolated functional brain regions to a more integrated view of these regions within functional networks. However, the methods used to investigate functional networks rely on local signals in grey matter and are limited in identifying anatomi...

Stroke significantly impacts quality of life. However, the long-term cognitive evolution in stroke is poorly predictable at the individual level. There is an urgent need for a better prediction of long-term symptoms based on acute clinical neuroimaging data. Previous works have demonstrated a strong relationship between the location of white matter...

Since Roger Sperry’s Nobel Prize (1981; see also Sperry 1974) for his discoveries of the functional specialisation of the cerebral hemispheres, significant theoretical and methodological advances have improved the quantitative characterisation of functional and structural markers of brain asymmetries. For instance, we now know that this is the disp...

The critical brain hypothesis states that biological neuronal networks, because of their structural and functional architecture, work near phase transitions for optimal response to internal and external inputs. Criticality thus provides optimal function and behavioral capabilities. We test this hypothesis by examining the influence of brain injury...

Background and objectives: Connectivity-based approaches incorporating the distribution and magnitude of the extended brain network aberrations caused by lesions may offer higher sensitivity for axonal damage in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) than conventional lesion characteristics. Using individual brain disconnectome mapping, we tested t...

Brain size significantly impacts the organization of white matter fibers. Fiber length scaling - the degree to which fiber length varies according to brain size - was overlooked. We investigated how fiber lengths within the corpus callosum, the most prominent white matter tract, vary according to brain size. The results showed substantial variation...

Cognitive functional neuroimaging has been around for over 30 years and has shed light on the brain areas relevant for reading. However, new methodological developments enable mapping the interaction between functional imaging and the underlying white matter networks. In this study, we used such a novel method, called the disconnectome, to decode t...

Cognitive functional neuroimaging has been around for over 30 years and has shed light on the brain areas relevant for reading. However, new methodological developments enable mapping the interaction between functional imaging and the underlying white matter networks. In this study, we used such a novel method, called the disconnectome, to decode t...

Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and—if accounted for—have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these inter-individual variations are commonly unaccounted for, despite reports of differences in gross anatomical features, cross-sectional, and connectional anatomy....

Over the past two decades, the study of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed the existence of multiple brain areas displaying synchronous functional blood oxygen level-dependent signals (BOLD)-resting-state networks (RSNs). The variation in functional connectivity between the different areas of a resting-state net...

Motricity is the most commonly affected ability after a stroke. While many clinical studies attempt to predict motor symptoms at different chronic time points after a stroke, longitudinal acute-to-chronic studies remain scarce. Taking advantage of recent advances in mapping brain disconnections, we predict motor outcomes in 62 patients assessed lon...

Patients with semantic aphasia have impaired control of semantic retrieval, often accompanied by executive dysfunction following left hemisphere stroke. Many but not all of these patients have damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus, important for semantic and cognitive control. Yet semantic and cognitive control networks are highly distributed,...

The field of neurocognition is currently undergoing a significant change of perspective. Traditional neurocognitive models evolved into an integrative and dynamic vision of cognitive functioning. Dynamic integration assumes an interaction between cognitive domains traditionally considered to be distinct. Language and declarative memory are regarded...

Motricity is the most commonly affected ability after a stroke. While many clinical studies attempt to predict motor symptoms at different chronic time points after a stroke, longitudinal acute-to-chronic studies remain scarce. Taking advantage of recent advances in mapping brain disconnections, we predict motor outcomes in 62 patients assessed lon...

Cortical asymmetry is a ubiquitous feature of brain organization that is altered in neurodevelopmental disorders and aging. Achieving consensus on cortical asymmetries in humans is necessary to uncover the genetic-developmental mechanisms that shape them and factors moderating cortical lateralization. Here, we delineate population-level asymmetry i...

Lesion network mapping estimates functional network abnormalities caused by a focal brain lesion. The method requires embedding the volume of the lesion into a normative functional connectome and using the average functional magnetic resonance imaging signal from that volume to compute the temporal correlation with all other brain locations. Lesion...

Patients with semantic aphasia have impaired control of semantic retrieval, often accompanied by executive dysfunction, following left hemisphere stroke. Many but not all of these patients have damage to left inferior frontal gyrus, important for semantic and cognitive control. Yet semantic and cognitive control networks are highly distributed, inc...

Recent resting-state functional MRI studies in stroke patients have identified two robust biomarkers of acute brain dysfunction: a reduction of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between homotopic regions of the same network, and an abnormal increase of ipsi-lesional functional connectivity between task-negative and task-positive resting-sta...

The field of neurocognition is currently undergoing a significant change of perspective. Traditional neurocognitive models evolved into an integrative and dynamic vision of cognitive functioning. Dynamic integration assumes an interaction between cognitive domains traditionally considered to be distinct. Language and declarative memory are regarded...

Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and - if accounted for - can improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these variations are largely unaccounted for. Brain connections are essential to mediate brain functional organization and, when severed, cause functional impairments. Here we reviewed the wealth...

Cognitive theories have been proposed to clarify the causes and symptoms of dyslexia. However, correlations between local network parameters of white matter connectivity and literacy skills remain poorly known. An unbiased hypothesis-free approach was adopted to examine the correlations between literacy symptoms (reading and spelling) and hub-based...

Sequalae following stroke represents a significant challenge in rehabilitation treatment. The location and size of focal lesions are only moderately predictive of the diverse cognitive outcome and rehabilitation potential after stroke. One explanation building on recent work on brain networks proposes that the cognitive consequences of focal lesion...

There is substantial experimental evidence for dysregulation of several microRNA (miRNA) expression levels in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). MiRNAs modulate critical brain intracellular signaling pathways and are associated with AD core pathophysiological mechanisms. First, we conducted a real-time quantitative PCR-based pilot study to identify a set of...

The pathophysiological mechanisms for classical plaque characteristics and their predictive value for clinical course and outcome in multiple sclerosis is unclear. Connectivity-based approaches incorporating the distribution and magnitude of the extended brain network aberrations caused by lesions may offer higher sensitivity for axonal damage. Usi...

Brain size significantly impacts the organization of white matter fibers. Fiber length scaling – the degree to which fiber length varies according to brain size – was overlooked. We investigated how fiber lengths within the corpus callosum, the most prominent white matter tract, vary according to brain size. The results showed substantial variation...

Objective Knowing explicitly where we are is an interpretation of our spatial representations. Reduplicative paramnesia is a disrupting syndrome in which patients present a firm belief of spatial mislocation. Here, we studied the largest sample of patients with delusional misidentifications of space (i.e. reduplicative paramnesia) after stroke to s...

Diffusion MRI paired with tractography has facilitated a non-invasive exploration of many association, projection, and commissural fiber tracts. However, there is still a scarcity of research studies related to intralobar association fibers. The Dejerines’ (two of the most notable neurologists of 19 th century France) gave an in-depth description o...

Objective functional alterations of the visual attention networks in a setting of impaired visual information processing have a role in the genesis of visual hallucinations (VH) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). This multimodal MRI study aims at exploring structural and functional basis of VH. Methods 23 DLB patients (10 with and 13 without VH)...

Stroke patients commonly suffer from post stroke fatigue (PSF). Despite a general consensus that brain perturbations constitute a precipitating event in the multifactorial etiology of PSF, the specific predictive value of conventional lesion characteristics such as size and localization remains unclear. The current study represents a novel approach...

Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and - if accounted for - have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these inter-individual variations are commonly unaccounted for, despite reports of differences in gross anatomical features, cross-sectional and connectional anatom...

Clinical neuroscience research relying on animal models has provided us with valuable translational insights into the function and the pathology of the human brain. The anatomical, physiological, and behavioural similarities between humans and animals, especially mammals, have prompted researchers to study their cerebral mechanisms at different lev...

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are well known to affect post-stroke disability, mainly by cognitive impairment. Their impact on post-stroke balance and gait disorders is unclear. Objectives: We aimed to test the hypothesis that WMHs would independently deteriorate post-stroke balance and gait recovery. Methods: This study was...

In recent years, the field of functional neuroimaging has moved from a pure localisationist approach of isolated functional brain regions to a more integrated view of those regions within functional networks. The methods used to investigate such networks, however, rely on local signals in grey matter and are limited in identifying anatomical circui...

Evolution, as we currently understand it, strikes a delicate balance between animals’ ancestral history and adaptations to their current niche. Similarities between species are generally considered inherited from a common ancestor whereas observed differences are considered as more recent evolution. Hence comparing species can provide insights into...

Diffusion weighted imaging has further pushed the boundaries of neuroscience by allowing us to peer farther into the white matter microstructure of the living human brain. By doing so, it has provided answers to fundamental neuroscientific questions, launching a new field of research that had been largely inaccessible. We will briefly summarize key...

The critical brain hypothesis states that biological neuronal networks, because of their structural and functional architecture, work near phase transitions for optimal response to internal and external inputs. Criticality thus provides optimal function and behavioral capabilities. We test this hypothesis by examining the influence of brain injury...

In recent years, the field of functional neuroimaging has moved from a pure localisationist approach of isolated functional brain regions to a more integrated view of those regions within functional networks. The methods used to investigate such networks, however, rely on local signals in grey matter and are limited in identifying anatomical circui...

In recent years, the field of functional neuroimaging has moved away from a pure localisationist approach of isolated functional brain regions to a more integrated view of these regions within functional networks. However, the methods used to investigate functional networks rely on local signals in grey matter and are limited in identifying anatomi...

Recent resting-state fMRI studies in stroke patients have identified two robust biomarkers of acute brain dysfunction: a reduction of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity (FC) between homotopic regions of the same network, and an abnormal increase of ipsilesional FC between task-negative and task-positive resting-state networks (RSNs). Whole-b...

Stroke patients commonly suffer from post stroke fatigue (PSF). Despite a general consensus that brain perturbations constitute a precipitating event in the multifactorial etiology of PSF, the specific predictive value of conventional lesion characteristics such as size and localization remain unclear. The current study represents a novel approach...

Being aware of one's own ability to interact socially is crucial to everyday life. After a brain injury, patients may lose their capacity to understand others' intentions and beliefs, that is, the Theory of Mind (ToM). To date, the debate on the association between ToM and other cognitive deficits (in particular executive functions and behavioural...

Brain lesions do not just disable but also disconnect brain areas, which once deprived of their input or output, can no longer subserve behaviour and cognition. The role of white matter connections has remained an open question for the past 250 years. Based on 1333 stroke lesions, here we reveal the human Disconnectome and demonstrate its relations...

Gradients capture some of the variance of the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) signal. Amongst these, the principal gradient depicts a functional processing hierarchy that spans from sensory-motor cortices to regions of the default-mode network. While the cortex has been well characterised in terms of gradients little is...

Neuroanatomy is vast, and the academic resources to learn it are endless. Whilst one can easily spend his life studying a category of cells, a connection or a brain area in isolation of the rest of the brain, with this short review we wished to provide an overview of the brain elements and how they interact together to make the human mind. Five sec...

The continuously developing field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made a considerable contribution to the knowledge of brain architecture. It has given shape to a desire to construct a complete map of functional and structural connections. In particular, diffusion MRI paired with tractography has facilitated a non-invasive exploration of st...

Evolution, as we currently understand it, strikes a delicate balance between animals' ancestral history and adaptations to their current niche. Similarities between species are generally considered inherited from a common ancestor whereas observed differences are considered more recent occurrences. Hence comparing species can provide insights into...

Behavioural deficits in stroke reflect both structural damage at the site of injury, and widespread network dysfunction caused by structural, functional, and metabolic disconnection. Two recent methods allow for the estimation of structural and functional disconnection from clinical structural imaging. This is achieved by embedding a patient's lesi...

The neural underpinnings of human emotional expression are thought to be unevenly distributed among the two brain hemispheres. However, little is known on the anatomy supporting this claim, particularly in the cerebral white matter. Here, we explored the relationship between hemi-face dominance in emotional expression and cerebral white matter asym...