Ronan Denyer visited our lab in September 2023 before he officially joins us as a postdoc in 2024. We had a very nice evening at Bombay BBQ in Brussels.
Welcome Ronan!
Congratulations to Su who got a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) involving 3 years of funding.
This proposal aims to understand the causal role of pupil-linked arousal (PLA), including the specific contribution of PLA-related neuromodulators, such as norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA), in the regulation of speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) during decision-making. We propose that the function of PLA includes a locus coeruleus (LC)-NE-mediated route enhancing information processing and materializing into augmented decision accuracy, as well as a substantia nigra (SN)-DA-mediated route causing behavioral invigoration and materializing into boosted decision speed. We will test this idea in 3 work packages (WPs) using interferential approaches. This work is relevant for fundamental neuroscience and also for neurology, as it will help better understand the causal role of arousal in regulating the speed and accuracy of our behaviors, and will open the path to potential treatments in associated neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Congratulations to Mantosh on being awarded a 4-year prestigious FNRS FRS Aspirant fellowship to complete his PhD in the CoActions Lab. The proposed research aims to investigate the causal role of sensorimotor mu-alpha phases in modulating corticospinal circuits during rest, movement preparation, and reinforcement learning. By employing cutting-edge EEG-TMS techniques, Mantosh will explore the relationship between mu-alpha phases and corticospinal excitability in young adults. Divided into three work packages, the research will provide insights into the phase-dependent modulation of corticospinal excitability during different motor contexts. The findings will contribute to our understanding of the functional relevance of mu-alpha rhythms in human motor behavior. This achievement marks an important step in advancing motor behavior research.
Congratulations to Emmanuelle for successfully defending her doctoral thesis on 13th June. Her research explored the neurophysiological abnormalities in the primary motor cortex (M1) that contribute to bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease (PD). Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Emmanuelle found a consistent deficit in preparatory suppression, a mechanism involved in voluntary movement preparation, in PD patients compared to healthy subjects. This deficit was independent of treatments but correlated with disease duration and motor symptom severity. Emmanuelle is now a postdoctoral research fellow at HM CINAC in Madrid, where she will continue investigating cortical excitability in PD patients using TMS and exploring non-invasive techniques like transcranial static magnetic field stimulation.
