Ronan Denyer Awarded 3-Year FNRS Fellowship - July 2024
FNRS Fellowship AwardCongratulations to Ronan Denyer who was awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS)!
Research Project
Ronan’s project is concerned with identifying neural sources of preparatory inhibition. The research will use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in combination with Instructed Delay Choice Reaction Time Tasks in humans.
Background
Recent research has led to the discovery of preparation-related suppression of corticospinal tract excitability, known as “preparatory suppression”. Despite these advances, motor evoked potentials (MEPs) produced by single pulse TMS over primary motor cortex (M1) have limited ability to test competing perspectives on the functional role of preparatory suppression.
Research Plan
Ronan has proposed a comprehensive set of experiments organized in 3 work packages (WP) using:
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
- Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS)
These tools will help improve understanding of the neural source of preparatory suppression and aid future efforts to parse out the function(s) of the effect in behavior for both healthy and clinical populations.
Impact
This fellowship represents a significant recognition of Ronan’s contributions to neuroscience and his innovative approach to understanding the neural mechanisms of motor control and inhibition.
