Benjamin Bréant

postdoctoral student

– Email :
– ORCID : 0000-0002-1885-3963
– Laboratoire Plasticité du Cerveau, CNRS UMR8249
ESPCI ParisTech
10 rue Vauquelin
75231 Paris cedex 5 France

Project

Nicotine’s impact on reward seeking, uncertainty and anxiety: relevance for tobacco dependence

Previous research experience

–  Electrophysiological correlates of speech and audition in lucid dreamers
Paris Brain Institute, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
–  The Acute effects of 5-MeO-DMT on behaviour, brain activity and arousal in mice
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, UK

Publications

B. J. B. Bréant, J. Prius-Mengual, A. Andrews, A. Hoerder-Suabedissen, J. Patel, D. M. Bannerman, T. Sharp, V. V. Vyazovskiy, Vigilance state dissociation induced by 5-meo-dmt in mice, Communications in Biology (https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-09412-x)
W. Thomas, C. Blanco-Duque, B. J. B. Bréant, G. M. Goodwin, T. Sharp, D. M. Bannerman, V. V. Vyazovskiy, Psilocin acutely alters sleep-wake architecture and cortical brain activity in laboratory mice. Transl. Psychiatry (doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-01846-9).
D. Ryczko, M. Hanini-Daoud, S. Condamine, B. J. B. Bréant, M. Fougere, R. Araya, A. Kolta, S100β-mediated astroglial control of firing and input processing in layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the mouse visual cortex. J. Physiol. (doi: 10.1113/JP280501).

Awards and grants

ISRP New Investigator Award, Investigating the dissociated states induced by psychedelics. (2024)
Master’s Award for Leadership. Pembroke College, Oxford (2023)
HG Collingwood Prize for Academic excellence. Pembroke College, Oxford (2023)
WH Pembroke Prize for Service to the community. Pembroke College, Oxford (2023)
Mitacs Globalink Research Award, Individual identification using sleep micro-architecture. (2023)
Senior Studentship. Pembroke College, University of Oxford (2022)
DTC Best Academic Poster Award, Psychedelic compound 5-MeO-DMT induces an altered wake state in mice. (2022)
BBSRC In Vivo Skills Award, Chronic monitoring of eye movement in mice. (2021)
UKRI- BBSRC Scholarship, The Serotonergic-Mediated Disturbance of Vigilance States. (2019)

Public outreach

Il veut percer les mystères des rêves, Brut (https://www.brut.media/fr/videos/il-veut-les-percer-mysteres-des-reves)
Eveil, sommeil et rêves: de l’exploration des mécanismes cérébraux à ceux des enjeux de la santé du cerveau, Conférence Université Auguste-Rodin, Meudon, France
Altering the Mind to Study Sleep, Pembroke 400 festival, University of Oxford, UK
Surfing the Sleeping Brain: How sleep changes brain activity, SCR talks, Pembroke College, University of Oxford, UK
The Paradoxical state of wakefulness induced by psychedelics, DPhil prize 2022, La Maison Française d’Oxford, Oxford, UK