INC Day 2025: an international scientific day dedicated to neuroscience

This new edition welcomed researchers from Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium, and France. This essential international dimension enriched discussions and contributed to advancing research in the field of neuroscience.

Students from both Graduate Schools had the opportunity to attend high-quality presentations, organized into four sessions.

Following a brief introduction by Mehrnaz Jafarian-Tehrani, head of the Neuroscience and Cognition Institute (INC) and co-head of the Graduate School Neuroscience; and Arnaud Cachia, head of the Graduate School Psychological Science, the day opened with a first session focused on the interests, constraints, and challenges of neurodevelopmental trajectories, featuring the following speakers:

• Kristine Walhovd (Oslo, Norway) : Dynamics of lifespan brain and cognition
• Awais Javed (Geneva, Switzerland): Molecular priming of cortical progenitor division behaviour at clonal resolution
• Ana Blas Medina (Paris, France): Microbial products shape postnatal development of the choroid plexus and brain volume

The second session addressed genetic and epigenetic aspects, with presentations by:

• Valérie Lallemand-Mezger (Paris, France) : Epigenetics and neurodevelopmental trajectories
• Anton Iftimovici (Paris, France): Genetic and epigenetic factors in neurodevelopmental disorders
• Anne Teissier (Paris, France): Reln sources and their control in neurodevelopmental disorders

The plenary lecture was delivered by:

• Michael Milham (New York, USA) : Breaking the Phenotyping Bottleneck: Reliability, Innovation, and Global Perspectives in Brain–Behavior Research

The third session focused on immunological, inflammatory, and metabolic aspects, with talks by:

• Ryohei Iwata (Louvain, Belgium) : Species-specific rates of mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism set the scale of temporal patterning of neural specification through protein acetylation dynamics
• Rosa Paolicelli (Lausanne, Switzerland) : Microglia: key players in brain maturation and function

Finally, the last session was devoted to modeling neurodevelopmental trajectories, featuring:

• Franck Ramus (Paris, France) : Sex differences in brain development
• Mylène Moyal (Paris, France) : Neurodevelopmental signatures of catatonia: resting-state EEG markers in schizophrenia and mood disorders

Warm thanks to all the organizers of INC DAY 2025:

• Arnaud Cachia, head of the Graduate School Psychological Science

• Diana Zala, INSERM researcher

• Lucie Hertz-Pannier, pediatrician, radiologist, and neuroimaging researcher

• Mehrnaz Jafarian-Tehrani, head of the Neuroscience and Cognition Institute (INC) and co-head of the Graduate School Neuroscience

• Mireille Laforge, CNRS researcher

Record attendance

This latest edition of the INC Day, held on the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Campus, was a great success, with more than 200 registered participants, including master’s students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and senior researchers. A record level of attendance for this event, which has been held annually for over 15 years.