CoActions Lab

Under the direction of Professor Julie Duque, the Cognition and Actions Lab is part of the Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS) of the Université catholique of Louvain (UCL), which is located in Brussels, Belgium. The lab currently hosts several undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral researchers.

Current research encompasses four main research topics, namely inhibitory control, a mechanism regarded as critical for the selection of pertinent actions and their initiation at the appropriate time; decision-making, a process allowing one to decide what to do next in dynamic and unpredictable environments, based on the integration of multiple factors including perceptual evidence, biomechanical constraints, personal goals, contextual rules or the expected outcome of actions; and motor learning, a process through which motor skills are refined based on sensory and reward feedbacks. In parallel to these, we aim at both improving data processing and acquisition tools and at creating new ones to further our understanding of the human brain, through a transversal research axis (see Innovation).

Experiments incorporate a combination of behavioral, perceptual and cognitive tasks with both healthy human participants and clinical populations such as patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease or suffering from an addiction.

Non-invasive brain stimulation such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), neuroimaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and non-invasive neuromodulation approach such as transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) are used. We also use state-of-the-art closed-loop EEG-TMS setup in the lab to better understand the role of sensorimotor oscillatory phases in the context of resting motor behavior, motor preparation and motor skill learning. Several researchers are involved in collaborative work with neuroscientists and physicians located at other research centers in Belgium and around the world.