From the essentials to cutting edge techniques in optical imaging and electrophysiology 

OPTICAL IMAGING AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL RECORDING IN NEUROSCIENCE

A 13-day residential course of lectures, demonstrations and practical work; a lectures-only option will be available online

LECTURES AND PRACTICALS

Lectures and practicals held at the Campus Saint Germain of the UPCité, 45 Rue des Saints Peres, 75006 Paris, France. Three days of demonstrations and lab visits are run at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Paris brian Institute (ICM) and Vision Institute (IdV). World-expert lecturers and instructors come from Paris, France, Europe, the world.

FEES

The course fee is expected to be around 2000€/1500€ per student with/without accommodation (depending on funding). Special arrangements exist for attending lectures only (including online for a modest fee). We can sometimes offer a stipend, which we typically reserve for participants from a low or middle-income country.

HANDS-ON

The course consolidates basic knowledge of electronics and optics with practicals follower by all students. We then offer intensive hands-on experimental sessions over six days, with dedicated instructors and setups assembled with the latest equipment. Students choose 3 state of the art techniques over the 9 to 11 avilable.

BOARD AND LODGING

Basic accomodation in a student residence should be available. Breakfast and lunch will be provided at the course (except Sundays). All students and lecturers are invited to the welcome and farewell banquets.

DEMONSTRATIONS

There are numerous demonstrations of advanced techniques, including: high-speed two-photon imaging, in vitro and in vivo light-sheet imaging, wavefront engineering,.

PARISIAN RESEARCH SOCIAL

Make the most of your stay in Paris to learn about its extensive research community and meet with local scientists to explore opportunities for collaboration, post-docs and careers. A social evening will be organised to connect interested students and researchers.
TESTIMONIALS

All the feedback from the 2025 class

This course was amazing, not only have I gained a wealth of knowledge, a deeper understanding of incredible difficult technologies I have made friends. This is an invaluable experience making the sleep deprivation very worth it!! Wish I could do it all over again. A special thanks to the demonstrators and organisers for making this the most enjoyable time possible! Everyone should go to this course as a fundamental.

Definitely a must for anyone early on in their neuroscientific career. You come back with so many new ideas, insights and connections, as well as in depth understanding of the basics. A perfect springboard!

I have never known the true meaning of sleep deprivation until this course, however, the bags under my eyes perfectly correlate with amount of knowedeldge i have acquired. I wear these bags like a badge of honour. Thank you.

If you are a PhD student in neuroscience and want to survive, follow the Paris neurocourse. You will learn everything your PI should teach you, but doesn’t know themselves.

This course should come with a warning: May cause excessive learning, scientific enthusiasm, and sudden urges to spend €100,000 on new lab equipment. I came for the techniques, stayed for the panic, and left sleep-deprived but ten times smarter.

This course helped me really understand all the basics I needed for a solid foundation to build on during my PhD. The lectures were very thorough and were complemented well by the hands-on practicals as well as the laboratory visits and demonstrations. It was refreshing to get to spend these 3 weeks alongside other early-career neuroscientists, learning from experts who are passionate about passing on their knowledge to the next generation. Thank you!

This course has exceeded every expectation I had. The organisers were caring and thorough, and we covered a great range of topics that every modern trainee neuroscientist should know. The lecturers and TAs were always enthusiastic and helpful. This has been a excellent learning/networking experience, and I will be recommending to every new PhD student I know.

It was an incredibly intense and rewarding two weeks from a scientific perspective. I gained new techniques and had the privilege of conversing with experienced scientists who generously shared their advice and answered numerous questions I had.

As a PhD student, I would suggest this course to anyone who would be interested in learning several techniques from professionals themselves. It was a great social and scientific experience which more than making you learn about the methods, it makes you understand them enough to use them in our projects, bringing them to our labs and maybe even our own future teams! A must for every aspiring researcher and a privilege to come into contact with excellence at the level of scientific discussion, institutes and researchers. It certainly ignited my spirit as a neuroscientist and despite being really intense, brought me a great motivation to go on with my career in academia.

I really liked this course, there are a lot to learn on these subjects. If you want to have an overview on how to record neurons, this school is for you. A little bit tiring but in the end, it’s worth it.

Founder and principal Organizer for the first 10 editions:

David Ogden

Organizers

Boris Barbour

IBENS

Brandon Stell

Université Paris Cité

Jon Bradley

ENS

Desdemona Fricker

Université Paris Cité

Joana LOURENCO

ICM

Michael Graupner

Université Paris Cité

Nelson Rebola

ICM

Eric Schwartz

Université Paris Cité

Cathie Ventalon

IBENS

Adrien Schramm

Course manager

Staff

Gilles Dewailly

Université Paris Cité

Luc Tamisier

Université Paris Cité

Hervé Suaudeau

Université Paris Cité