Humans spend about a third of their life sleeping. Yet, our understanding of the cognitive, emotional and neurodevelopmental functions of this essential behavior and how these may be disrupted in clinical populations is still very limited. Sleep disturbances are observed in most major psychiatric disorders but little is known about their exact nature. Our focus is on defining the physiological features of sleep disturbances in psychiatric disorders, investigating their relations with symptoms and cognitive deficits, and examining the neural circuitry involved in these sleep deficits. The ultimate goal of our research is to identify sleep-related biomarkers that play a causal role in psychiatric disorders.

Our lab exploits multimodal neuroimaging and electrophysiology techniques to investigate these questions. We study adults as well as adolescents and children diagnosed with or at heightened risk for various psychopathologies including psychotic disorders, anxiety and depression. 

Recent publications