Pr Pierre Aurélien BEURIAT
Pediatric neurosurgery department
The pediatric neurosurgery department treats all pathologies of the central nervous system that require surgical treatment. All surgical procedures take place in the HFME operating room which is dedicated to pediatric care.
Pathologies
- Brain tumors. Particular expertise has been developed for the surgical treatment of tumors of the pineal and pineal region, and tumors of the posterior cerebral fossa of children.
- Childhood hydrocephalus. The service is at the forefront of the use of endoscopic technique in this area.
- Craniostenoses and craniofaciostenoses that we treat in the most complex and syndromic forms in double team with maxillofacial surgeons. The service houses the reference center for craniostenoses and craniofacial malformations
- Malformative pathologies of the central nervous system (marrow attached, lipoma, diastematomyelia, meningocele, myelomeningicele, Chiari malformation etc.). The department hosts the C-MAVEM Reference Center (Chiari, vertebral and medullar malformations).
- Vascular malformations of the central nervous system.
- Traumatic brain and spinal pathologies.
- Pediatric functional neurosurgery. Expertise has been developed for the treatment of child drug-resistant epilepsies and child spasticity.
Pr Pierre Aurélien BEURIAT
ISC-MJ, neural and cognitive control of action team member
Research themes
My research activity revolves around two axes which are linked and inseparable: clinical research and fundamental research.
My main theme is the exploration of the functional organization of human cortex (cortex cerebral and cerebellar cortex) as well as their establishment during life (ontogenesis) and their reorganization in a pathological context (plasticity).
In addition, we are also working to understand the consequences of brain lesions (brain tumor, epilepsy) on the evolution of motor, sensory and cognitive functions throughout life. The clinical goal is to understand the mechanisms influencing functional recovery and therefore the quality of life of patients. We are developing a multimodal analysis methodology. Indeed, we combine an exploration approach which includes both the clinical analysis of sensorimotor capacities, the exploration of cognitive functions, the analysis of the location of brain lesions thanks to MRI exploration and the electrophysiological exploration in the operating room.
At the same time, I am interested in the development of methods for exploring brain lesions using techniques
new imaging such as PET MRI and high resolution MRI and visualization of brain lesions by fluorescence in situ per operative.
Main national and international collaborations
International collaborations:
- Jordan GRAFMAN: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Think and Speak Lab, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
National collaborations:
- Michel DESMURGET – Irene CRISTOFORI: « Neural and cognitive control of action » team, Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences, Lyon
- Bassem HIBA: “Brain Imaging Methodological Axis” team, Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences,
- Lyon
- James BONAIUTO: “Decision, Action, and Neural Computation Lab” team, Marc Cognitive Sciences Institute
- Jeannerod
- Bruno MONTCEL: “MAGICS” team, CREATIS Laboratory, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University
- CERMEP Life Imaging
- Marc JANIER – Anthime FLAUS: Nuclear Medicine Department, Hospices Civils de Lyon
- Pierre LEBLOND – Cécile FAURE CONTER: Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
- Karine OSTROWSKI-COSTE – Alexandra MONTAVONT – Eleni PANAGIOSTAKAKI, Department of clinical epileptology, sleep disorders and functional neurology of children, Hospices Civils de Lyon
Publications
- Cristofori I, Cohen-Zimerman S, Krueger F, et al. Studying the social mind: An updated summary of findings from the Vietnam Head Injury Study. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav. 2024;174:164-188. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2024.03.002
- Veyrie M, Beffara B, Richard N, et al. Causally Mapping the Cerebellum in Children and Young Adults: from Motor to Cognition. Cerebellum Lond Engl. 2025;24(2):31. doi:10.1007/s12311-024-01778-8
- Beuriat PA, Flaus A, Portefaix A, et al. Preoperative 11 C-Methionine PET-MRI in Pediatric Infratentorial Tumors. Clin Nucl Med. 2024;49(5):381-386. doi:10.1097/RLU.0000000000005174
- Beuriat PA, Cristofori I, Richard N, et al. Cerebellar lesions at a young age predict poorer long-term functional recovery. Brain Commun. 2020;2(1):fcaa027. doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcaa027
- Beuriat PA, Cristofori I, Gordon B, Grafman J. The shifting role of the cerebellum in executive, emotional and social processing across the lifespan. Behav Brain Funct BBF. 2022;18(1):6. doi:10.1186/s12993-022-00193-5
- Beuriat PA, Cohen-Zimerman S, Smith GNL, Krueger F, Gordon B, Grafman J. Evidence of the role of the cerebellum in cognitive theory of mind using voxel-based lesion mapping. Sci Rep. 2022;12(1):4999. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-09104-0
- Beuriat PA, Cohen-Zimerman S, Smith GNL, Krueger F, Gordon B, Grafman J. A New Insight on the Role of the Cerebellum for Executive Functions and Emotion Processing in Adults. Front Neurol. 2020;11:593490. doi:10.3389/fneur.2020.593490
