Belin Lab

Research

Our research is interested in the neural, cellular and molecular substrates of individual vulnerability to develop impulsive/compulsive disorders such as drug addiction, Obsessive/compulsive disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, pathological gambling or dopamine dysregulation syndrome in Parkinson’s Disease. 

Our working hypothesis is that impulses, originating from the amygdalo-insular networks, can drive behaviour through explicit knowledge involving prefrontal and orbitofrontal loops or implicit mechanisms that instead depend upon the functional relationships of these structures with several domains of the striatum.  

We suggest that the individual vulnerability to develop impulsive/compulsive neuropsychiatric disorders stems from aberrant plasticity processes within the corticostriatal networks governing the translation of impulses into actions that ultimately result in a so-called abnormal incentive habit process. 

Our research is designed according to a vertical, top-down strategy with direct translational perspectives that combines the development of refined preclinical models of impulsive and compulsive behaviours, causal manipulations of the brain with either pharmacological tools or optogenetics, and correlational analyses of the brain using state of the art molecular biology techniques. 

Our program of research is subdivided into several converging lines of research: 

  1. The role of the insular cortex, and its interactions with the BLA and the ventral striatum, in drug addiction and OCD within a general framework of impaired insight in compulsive disorders 
  2. The functional interactions between the amygdala nuclei and the different domains of the striatum subserving the establishment of aberrant incentive habits and subsequent compulsivity 
  3. The cellular and molecular substrates of intrastriatal shifts subserving maladaptive incentive habits 
  4. The influence of the environment on inter-individual differences to develop impulsive/compulsive disorders 

For this we use several complementary techniques ranging from experimental psychology to molecular neurobiology: 

Behaviour: 

Protracted self-administration, habitual and compulsive drug (cocaine, heroin and alcohol) seeking and taking behaviours, schedule-induced polydipsia, 5-choice serial reaction time task, differential low rate of reinforcement, fixed chain number schedule of reinforcement, delay discounting, rat gambling task, probabilistic reversal learning, novelty preference, locomotor reactivity to novelty, interoceptive discrimination task, sign tracking, elevated plus maze, sucrose preference 

Neural systems:

Causal manipulations of the brain in behaving animals: neuropharmacology, optogenetics, chemogenetics CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene manipulation 

Extracellular electrophysiology; patch-clamp electrophysiology, multiplex fibre photometry in behaving animals 

Cellular and molecular neurobiology: 

Cell culture, RNAscope in situ hybridization, multiplex western-blot, ChiP-ChiP hybridization, qPCR, immunohistochemistry, ELISA,  

Environmental manipulations: 

Environmental enrichment, periniatal stress, social defeat stress, CMUS 

Members

  • Mickaël Puaud – lab manager 
  • Dr. Dhaval Joshi, PhD 
  • Chloe Chernoff, PhD student 
  • Matt Marshall, PhD student 
  • Alexandra Dragu, Master student 
  • Dr Aude Belin-Rauscent, visiting scientist 
  • Dr Barry Everitt, emeritus professor, visiting scientist 

Collaborations

  • Professor Alejandro Higuera-Matas, UNED, Spain 
  • Professor Yasmin Hurd, Mount Sinai, NYC, USA 
  • Professor Yvan Petershmitt, University of Besançon, France 
  • Dr Marie-Laure Daniel, APHP, Paris 
  • Dr Julien Dampuré, Department of Psychology, University of Niort, France 
  • Dr Morgane Besson, Pasteur Institute, France 
  • Professor Jean-Luc Houeto, University of Limoges, France 

Publications

  1. Dampuré J; *, Agudelo-Orjuela P, Van Der Miek M, Barber H & Belin D (2026) Behavioural and electrophysiological (ERP) determinants of decision-making in individuals with a smoking habit; Frontiers in psychology, In Press. 
  2. Chernoff CS, Belin-Rauscent A, Puaud M, Torrisi SA, Fouyssac M, Németh B., Yu C, Higuera-Matas A, Jones S.* & Belin D* (2024) Atomoxetine exacerbates compulsive coping behaviour, which goal-tracker rats do not develop. Biological Psychiatry, In Press, doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.07.012 External Link 
  3. Puaud M, Joshi D, Wright A, Ho V, Belin-Rauscent A, Fouyssac M, Everitt BJ, Peterschmitt Y, Belin D (2025) The use of internal states to guide behaviour is associated with functional engagement of the anterior insula in the rat. E-Neuro, In press, https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0156-25.2025. 
  4. Hynes T, Fouyssac M, Puaud M, Chernoff C, Stiebahl S, Belin D (2024) Pan-striatal reduction in the expression of the astrocytic dopamine transporter precedes the development of dorsolateral striatum dopamine-dependent incentive heroin seeking habits, European Journal of Neuroscience 59(10) 2502-2521 
  5. Marti-Prats L, Giuliano C, Domi A, Puaud M, Pena-Oliver Y, Fouyssac M, McKenzie C, Everitt BJ, Belin D (2023) The development of compulsive coping behavior depends on the engagement of dorsolateral striatum dopamine-dependent mechanisms. Molecular Psychiatry 28(11) 4666-4678, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02256-z.  
  6. Jones JA, Belin-Rauscent A, Jupp B, Fouyssac M, Sawiak SJ, Zhukovsky P, Hebdon L, Velazquez Sanchez C, Robbins TW, Everitt BJ, Belin D*, Dalley JW* (2023), Neurobehavioral precursors of compulsive cocaine-seeking in dual fronto-striatal circuits. Biological Psychiatry GOS 4(1) 194-202, doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.06.001, *: co-last authors 
  7. Dampuré J, Agudelo-Orjuela P, Van Der Meij M, Belin D* & Barber H* (2023), Electrophysiological signature of the interplay between habits and inhibition in response to smoking-related cues in individuals with a smoking habit: an ERP study. European Journal of Neuroscience 57(8) 1335-1352, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15942, *: co-last authors.  
  8. Velazquez-Sanchez C, Muresan L, Marti-Prats L, Belin D (2023), The development of compulsive coping behaviours is associated with a downregulation of Arc in a Locus Coeruleus neuronal ensemble, Neuropsychopharmacology 8 653-663, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01522-y.  
  9. Fouyssac M, Pena-Oliver Y, Puaud M, Lim N, Giuliano C, Everitt BJ & Belin D (2022) Negative urgency exacerbates relapse to cocaine seeking following abstinence, Biological Psychiatry 91(12) 1051-1060, doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.10.009. PMID: 34922736 
  10. Fouyssac M, Puaud M, Ducret E, Marti-Prats L, Vanhille N, Ansquer S, Zhang X, Belin-Rauscent A, Giuliano C, Houeto JL, Everitt BJ, Belin D (2020) Environment-dependent behavioral traits and experiential factors shape addiction vulnerability. European Journal of Neuroscience, 53(6) 1794-1808, doi: 10.1111/ejn.15087. PMID: 33332672