Congratulations to Clara who got a Fonds Spécial de Recherche (FSR) grant from the UCLouvain for 2024. This will allow her to work on her project while securing fundings for the rest of her thesis.
Her research project aims to understand the causal role of arousal, including the specific contribution of neuromodulatory systems using norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA), in the control of two different aspects of human behavior: decision making and reaching movements. She will test the hypothesis that the function of arousal includes (1) a substantia nigra (SN)-DA-mediated route invigorating behavior and (2) a locus coeruleus (LC)-NE-mediated route streamlining this invigoration in a goal-directed manner. This idea will be tested in 3 work packages (WPs), all using long-latency reflexes elicited by mechanical perturbations as marker of goal-directed control policy and all involving an orthogonal manipulation of LC-NE and SN-DA systems. A highlight of the project is the use of transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) to causally perturb LC-NE in all WPs; the SN-DA system will be targeted by manipulating reward in healthy subjects (WP1-2) and by considering Parkinson’s disease patients, either ON or OFF DA (WP3). Using these procedures, WP1 will focus on decision making, WP2 will focus on reaching movements and WP3 will consider the causal role of arousal in relation to neurodegeneration of SN & LC (measured with structural MRI) in Parkinson’s disease patients. Overall, this work will contribute to both fundamental neuroscience and neurology, as it will help better understand the causal role of arousal in the regulation of our behaviors and will open the path to new treatments in neurological disorders, such as in Parkinson’s disease.
The CoActions Lab participated in the workshop “Neurophysiological Bases of Human Movement” in London on December 12-13, 2023, presenting four abstracts and earning a poster award for Shiyong Su. The event provided a unique platform to expand scientific networks and exchange with other scientists on our research topics.
After the workshop, lab members explored London together, fostering team camaraderie!
Congratulations to Thibault Fumery who has been awarded a 4-year FRIA grant starting from October 2023 !
His project focuses on how motivation by reward interacts with cognitive inhibitory control to shape urgency during decision making; using neurophysiological tools (behavioral measures and transcranial magnetic stimulation) and MRI (tractography). He will work with healthy adults and adolescents, and patients with Parkinson's disease to better understand this interaction on behavior and the neural bases of impulsivity.
Julie was invited to give a talk on the neural substrates of urgency during human decision making at the Bordeaux Neurocampus international conference, NeuroCompare (Comparative Neuronal Circuits For Adaptive Behaviour), which took place in France from Tuesday 26th to Thursday 28th September, 2023." The talk focused on the work done by former postdoc Gérard Derosière (now INSERM in Lyon) and an ongoing study pursued by Fanny Fievez, Thibault Fumery and Fostine Chaise, all PhD candidates in the lab.
Julie was invited by Giovanni Mirabella to give a talk on a related topic at Brescia University in Italy on October 13th 2023. The presentation also included preliminary data on a study using transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, led by postdoc Shiyong Su in the lab.
