Sound coding in the auditory nerve: from animal models to humans

Jérôme Bourien is an assistant professor at the University of Montpellier and at the Institute for Neurosciences of Montpellier (Inserm U1298) where he is working since 2005. In 2003, he received a Ph.D. in signal processing at the University of Rennes, France. During his Ph.D. project, he used intracranial EEG signals and computational models to identify neural networks that underlie epileptic seizures in humans. Now, he is working on the sound-encoding mechanisms with a special interest in drug- and noise-induced cochlear neuropathies in animal models. He combines electrophysiological and morphological techniques with computational models to assess the functional properties of auditory nerve fibers.

He is also developing the translational side of his work, to propose new electrophysiological markers of the cochlear function dedicated to hearing-impaired patients.