Our team
Our team includes researchers of six different nationalities with various background but with a common interest in unravelling brain function!
Geneviève Albouy
PI
Geneviève started her research career at the Universities of Lyon (France) and Liège (Belgium) where she conducted neuroimaging studies examining the influence of sleep on motor memory consolidation (2004-2008). She subsequently completed her postdoctoral research at the University of Montreal (Canada) where she specifically investigated the functional roles of the hippocampus and the striatum in this process (2009-2014). In 2015, she became Assistant Professor in the Movement Sciences Department at KU Leuven (Belgium) and is, since January 2021, an Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the University of Utah. Her research investigates the plasticity processes supporting memory consolidation.
Nina Dolfen
Postdoc
I completed my master in experimental psychology in 2015 and I am currently PhD student at the lab of Geneviève Albouy. During my PhD I used a comprehensive neuroimaging approach (including functional MRI, MR spectroscopy and EEG) to investigate whether and how acute stress modulates neural functioning in motor memory relevant brain networks.
Menno Veldman
Postdoc
I am a motor neuroscientist that has a broad interest in neuroscience, human movement, (neuro)physiology, and (neuro)rehabilitation. I am particularly interested in using state-of-the-art neurophysiological techniques to understand the human brain in relation to human behaviour with the ultimate goal to improve human functioning. In December 2017, I obtained a PhD in motor neuroscience from the University of Groningen. Starting early 2018, I have been working on exploiting sensorimotor interactions to improve motor memory consolidation through electrical stimulation in somatosensory targeted memory reactivation. It has been a ‘shocking’ experience!
Judith Nicolas
Postdoc
After having completed a Bachelor in Biology (2011) at the University of Montpellier (France), I earned a Masters in animal and human behavior (2014) at the University of Rennes (France), and a Masters in Neuropsychology and clinical Neurosciences (2015) at the University of Toulouse (France). I was granted a Ph.D. fund by the Fondation de France in 2015. In 2019, I earned my PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Lyon (France) with Drs. Aurélie Bidet-Caulet and Denis Pélisson. In 2019, I joined Dr. Geneviève Albouy’s lab at KU Leuven (Belgium) as a postdoctoral fellow. Since then, I develop my research project using a multimodal approach (behavior, magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, and EEG-contingent auditory stimulation). This project aims at providing significant insights into motor memory processes and its interactions with sleep. It will offer new avenues to amplify neuroplasticity, alleviate motor deficits, and increase well-being in not only healthy aging, but ultimately in those with neurological conditions.
Moran Gilat
Postdoc
Moran Gilat obtained his degree in human movement sciences at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research focuses on how motor and non-motor features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) interact, with the aim to improve the rehabilitation of those affected. He conducted his PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he combined virtual reality with functional MRI to investigate the motor- and non-motor neural circuits underlying gait difficulties in PD. During this time, he also got trained as a sleep-science technician and coordinated a randomized controlled trial for REM-sleep behavior disorder in PD. As a post-doctoral fellow, Moran joined the teams of Prof. Alice Nieuwboer and Prof. Genevieve Albouy at KU Leuven and together with the University Hospital sleep department they are setting up a new line of research focusing on how non-invasive sleep interventions can facilitate motor learning in people with PD. This unexplored field is projected to open up new treatment avenues for improved and prolonged motor functioning in PD.
Mareike Gann
PhD student
Driven by a strong interest in neuroscience research, I completed my Bachelor (2013) and Master (2016) in Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen (Germany). In 2017 I joined Genevieve’s team at KU Leuven and I am supported by an FWO PhD fellowship since November 2019. For my PhD project I am using a comprehensive neuroimaging approach including MR spectroscopy, task-related and resting-state fMRI to investigate TMS-induced modulations of motor memory processes.
Simon Titone
PhD student
I am a second year PhD student from California studying sleep, motor memory and aging. My current research uses high density electroencephalography (hdEEG) to observe networks of functional connectivity in the sleeping brains of young and older adults. I obtained my BA at the University of Redlands (CA) in the neuroscience of oneirology (the study of dreams), and recently completed my MSc in neuroimaging at Bangor university in North Wales where I researched human-robot interaction using fMRI.
Serena Reverberi
PhD student
After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Maastricht University (2017) and a Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Radboud University (Nijmegen, 2019), Serena left the Netherlands for neighboring Belgium and joined Genevieve’s team at KU Leuven in 2019 as a PhD student. Since November 2020, she is supported by an FWO PhD fellowship. While her Bachelor and Master research projects focused on declarative memory, her doctoral project explores the influence of cognitive-motor schemata on motor memory consolidation, combining behavioral tasks with polysomnography and fMRI recordings, as well as TMS stimulation.