Position: PhD in Signal Processing, Assistant Professor, University of Montpellier1

Academic and research Track :

Jérôme Bourien began its research activity in 1999 in the “Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l’Image” (LTSI) at the University of Rennes (France). During five years, he developed signal processing and statistical methods for the analysis of interictal EEG signals from epileptic patients. In 2004, he joined the Computational NeuroEngineering Laboratory (CNEL) at the University of Florida (USA) directed by the Pr José Principe. During this period, he worked on the detection of synchronized firings in multivariate neural spike trains during motor tasks. In 2005, he obtained an assistant professor position at the “research center for hearing aids” at the University of Montpellier (France) where he teaches signal processing and electronic.

Research interests :

The present research program of Jérôme Bourien is focused on the cochlear neurotransmission mechanisms and their links with the occurrence of tinnitus in human and in animal models. The auditory nerve fibres exhibit a spontaneous (basal) firing activity in the absence of acoustic stimulations. Alterations of this firing rate may explain several types of tinnitus, named peripheral tinnitus.

• The first aim of its research is to explain, with statistical methods, how the spontaneous activity is modified in animals experiencing tinnitus. To deal with this question, he analyses single-unit spontaneous activity in animal models of tinnitus.
• The second aim concerns the modelling of the spontaneous activity. He is developing a phenomenological model of the inner-hair-cell and its synaptic complex with the auditory-nerve taking into account the NMDA receptors and the gain-control feedback loop exerted by the lateral olivocochlear efferents fibres.

The long term objective of its research is to propose a diagnostic tool for peripheral tinnitus in human.

Methods : spikes and burst detection, renewal processes analysis, neural spike train analysis and modelling, inner-hair-cell and auditory-nerve synapse complex modelling

Key words : glutamate, AMPA & NMDA receptors, synaptic transmission, lateral olivocochlear efferents, inner ear, tinnitus.