My main research interest is to understand how the human brain processes nociceptive sensory input, and how this leads to the perception of pain.
thermal infrared camera laser stimulus co2 skin nociceptors  
 
Pain is a major health care problem worldwide. It affects the well−being of millions of individuals, and its financial burden upon our societies is considerable. Pain relief often constitutes a very problematic challenge to the physician. Nevertheless, the ability to perceive pain is crucial for survival. Indeed, pain may warn us of damage that is about to occur to our bodies. We are able to perceive pain because the contact with a potentially dangerous object (e.g. a hot saucepan) activates specific nerve fibres which transmit that information to the central nervous system. Brain imaging studies have shown that noxious stimulation produces a complex network of brain responses. However, the nature of these responses and how each of them relates to the perception of a painful experience is largely unknown. In fact, it is highly likely that a large fraction of these activities reflect brain processes which are not specifically involved in the perception of pain, but rather reflect very general brain processes such as the orientation of attention towards the occurrence of an unexpected sensation.

 

I was born in Belgium in 1975. I graduated in Medicine and Surgery from l'Université catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, where I obtained my MD in 1999, obtained my PhD in Neuroscience in 2005, and completed my residency in Neurology in 2006. During my PhD, I worked in the laboratory of Prof. Léon Plaghki, investigating the electrophysiological correlates of the cortical processing of nociceptive input by recording event-related brain potentials to infrared laser stimuli (laser-evoked brain potentials, LEPs).

In 2006, I obtained a Marie Curie Fellowship, and became a Chargé de Recherche of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS). I moved to Oxford and joined, as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow, the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRIB) Centre, to investigate further the neural basis of nociception in humans. In addition to the recording of event-related brain potentials, my research now also relies on functional magnetic resonance imaging.

During my PhD, I have developped and implemented a number of signal-processing tools that may be used to analyse the human electroencephalogram (EEG). These tools have been made freely available in a package, called Letswave. The package, which is regularly updated, is now being used in a number of laboratories. A new, open-source version of the package is in the making, which will facilitate the contribution of other developpers to the project.

Finally, I am also interested in the the neural basis of olfaction, using chemosensory event-related brain potentials.

 

News

2009-07-03 07:26

Letswave4 beta!

Letswave was rewritten from scratch, including all data-processing and visualisation routines. Feel...

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2008-09-09 10:10

Letswave software update

This new version (1) fixes a bug which led to another error when running ICA decomposition...

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Quick links

Download LetsWave, a free EEG signal-processing toolbox running under Microsoft Windows.

Download GLFlickrShowto produce fullscreen slideshows feeding on Flickr, the online photo-sharing service.

View a short summary of my research interests.

View an introduction to novel signal-processing methods applied to the analysis of EEG.

Browse through an updated list of papers, talks, and posters.

Download a copy of my thesis entitled "Preceding events condition the central processing of nociceptive input as revealed by laser-evoked potentials".

View some pictures or movies.

Contact

André Mouraux

Unité READ
Faculté de médecine
Université catholique de Louvain
Belgium

+32-2-764-9349


GLFlickrShow

Letswave


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