Claire Jaffré

Current Position 

I am currently a PhD student under the supervision of Fabien Vinckier at the Motivation, Brain and Behavior Team at the Brain & Spine Institute (ICM). 

Current Project 

The aim of my PhD project is to develop personalized medicine in the field of psychiatry, in particular in the course of depression. Our main goal is to be able to predict who among depressed patients will respond to conventional antidepressants and who would require a more aggressive treatment from the outset.

We use a battery of tests designed to evaluate the different facets of motivation. My thesis work will consist of repeatedly evaluating depressed patients to examine the effect of different therapeutic interventions. By combining this “Motivational Battery” with neuroscience tools, including mathematical modeling of behavior and functional brain imaging, I will seek to compare the effects of molecules with different mechanisms of action, to predict patients’ resistance to conventional antidepressant treatments, and  to identify brain abnormalities associated with motivational disorders in depression (using functional MRI). 

This "Motivational battery" helps to refine the clinician's understanding of the patient and guide therapeutic choices: my PhD thesis will allow me to put the tools of neuroscience at the service of the clinicians.

Academic Background 

• Nowadays: PhD student (Brain and Spine Institut - ICM. Paris)

• 2018-2019 : Master degree in Neuroscience (Sorbonne University)

• 2008-2018 : Medical Faculty (René Descartes University), Resident in Psychiatry

Lab Experience 

• From September 2019 to now: PhD student with Fabien Vinckier (Brain and Spine Institut - ICM. Paris)

• February 2019 to August 2019: M2 internship with Fabien Vinckier at the Motivation, Brain and Behavior Team (Brain and Spine Institut - ICM. Paris) “Neuro-computational characterization of motivation disorders: test-retest validity of a new instrument in depression”