AdresseProject Title
Fibro-cognition: Assessment of cognitive functions in people with fibromyalgia (FNRS WelChange project)
Overview
Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by diffuse pain and often associated with sleep, mood and cognitive disorders. Its disabling nature, its impact on mental health and the social and professional integration of the patients, as well as its direct and indirect financial costs on society, make fibromyalgia a major public health issue.
Patients’ difficulties in managing cognitive effort and distractibility during daily cognitive activities are recognized as cognitive markers of fibromyalgia. These difficulties could be explained either by the fact that their physical symptoms capture their cognitive resources, or by cognitive biases that motivate them to give priority attention to their bodily sensations to the detriment of other information from their environment. However, no study has yet managed to clearly define the cognitive dysfunctions underlying their difficulties. One of the raised issues is that these previous studies have used tools that are poorly suited to assess cognitive function of chronic pain people and with stimuli that are not very relevant to them, such as neutral visual stimuli.
The objective of the project is to test in patients with fibromyalgia their abilities to perceive their body and its peripersonnal space, as well as their abilities to pay attention and to memorize somatosensory stimuli directly applied to their body (particularly during conflict with non-somatic stimuli). The results of the project will make it possible to define tools to better understand the cognitive functioning of patients suffering from fibromyalgia in order to refine the diagnosis and improve the treatment, in accordance with the biopsychosocial model of chronic pain management.
Principal investigator and host laboratory
Valéry Legrain, Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), UCLouvain (Brussels campus), Belgium.
Requirements
The candidate must, at the latest at the start of the mandate, hold a master's degree (or recognized equivalent) in a field close to health sciences (for example, neuropsychology, clinical psychology, motricity and rehabilitation sciences, biomedical sciences, medicine, etc.). He/she should have experience in experiment design, data collection, analysis and communication. He/she must have good English skills for communication in the lab and fluency in French is necessary to interact with patients. Clinical experience is an added value, even if only through master's internships. Basic programming experience (e.g. Matlab) is also an asset.
The candidate must submit in a single document in pdf format (1) a motivation letter, (2) their CV detailing their academic and professional background and their research experiences, (3) two letters of recommendation (for students, from the master thesis promoter and/or internship supervisors).
The project will start immediately after the selection of the candidate - The successful candidate will receive funding for 4 years.
For more details about the position, please contact Valéry Legrain: valery.legrain@uclouvain.be
