Our research team

LESCA Management

Louis Behrer, M.Ps. Ph.D.
Director and Neuropsychologist

Full Professor, Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal,
Mirella and Lino Saputo Research Chair in Cardiovascular Health and Prevention of Cognitive Disorders
Deputy Scientific Director, Prevention Branch, Montreal Heart Institute,
Researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre and the Centre for Preventive Medicine and Physical Activity (Centre ÉPIC),
Researcher and Laboratory Director, Montreal Geriatric University Institute Research Centre

Louis Bherer is full professor at the Department of Medicine at Université de Montréal and Associate scientific director at the Preventive medicine and Physical activity center of the Montreal Heart Institute. He is also Lab Director and researcher in cognitive neuroscience in aging at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. Dr. Bherer specializations include cognitive aging, executive functions, physical exercise, and cognitive training. He held the Canada Research Chair (CIHR) in aging and prevention of cognitive decline at UQAM until 2013 and now holds the Mirella and Lino Saputo Chair in Cardiovascular Health and the Prevention of Cognitive Decline.

Louis Bherer, Ph.D.
Director and Neuropsychologist

Research Associates

Catherine-Alexandre Grégoire, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Catherine-Alexandra Grégoire completed her Ph.D in neurobiology of adult stem cells in the laboratory of Dr. Karl Fernandes at the University of Montreal in 2016. The general objective of her thesis was to investigate the mechanisms underlying activation of neural stem cells in the adult central nervous system. To address this question, two complementary models were used in adult mice: 1) activation of hippocampal NSCs by environmental enrichment, and 2) activation of spinal cord NSCs by injury-induced neuroinflammation. In parallel, Catherine-Alexandra also completed a certificate in management at McGill University in 2016.

Catherine-Alexandra then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical sciences under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer at the research center of the Montreal Heart Institute from 2016 to 2019. Her project consisted of investigating the impact of different types of physical activity on neurotrophic factors.

Catherine-Alexandra is now a research associate in Dr. Louis Bherer’s laboratory at the EPIC Centre of the Montreal Heart Institute. She coordinates several projects and manages the biomarkers laboratory.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Catherine-Alexandra+Gr%C3%A9goire&sort=date

Catherine-Alexandra Grégoire, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Christine Gagnon, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher and Neuropsychologist

Dr. Christine Gagnon is a Research Associate and Neuropsychologist. She completed her doctorate (Psy.D., Ph.D.) at UQÀM in 2012. Her thesis focused on the acute effects of nutrition on cognition and brain activity in the elderly. She then practiced for a few years as a clinical neuropsychologist in rehabilitation and in private practice, in addition to being a supervisor at the university psychology clinic and lecturer at UQÀM.

Dr. Gagnon divides her time between research and clinical practice. Indeed, she works as a clinical neuropsychologist with patients referred from the Montreal Heart Institute and the EPIC Center. In the LESCA laboratory, as a research associate, she is particularly interested in the cognitive profile of patients with various cardiovascular diseases and in the early detection of cognitive decline. In the LESCA Lab, Dr. Gagnon also collaborates on and coordinates various research projects investigating the effects of physical and cognitive training on cognitive performances of individuals with different cardiovascular diseases. Finally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Gagnon participated in the transition within the laboratory from traditional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological assessments to virtual neuropsychological assessments.

Christine Gagnon, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher and Neuropsychologist

Thomas Vincent, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Thomas Vincent completed his PhD in cerebral functional imaging at Neurospin (CEA, France) while developing regularized methods for cerebral hemodynamics modeling. He was then involved in a phase II clinical trial to validate a medication by means of functional MRI in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2011 he became a post-doctoral fellow at Inria in Grenoble (France) to work on neurovascular coupling and quantitative MRI.

He joined the PERFORM center (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) in 2015 during another postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer and Dr. Christophe Grova, to develop projects employing near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Thomas is currently a research associate at the EPIC center of the Montreal Heart Institute. He is in charge of implementing and developing multimodal cerebral imaging protocols involving MRI, NIRS, EEG and transcranial Doppler. His main field of application focuses on cognitive aging in relationship with physical and cognitive training, while investigating cerebrovascular health.

Thomas Vincent, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Mathieu Gayda, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Research scientist at the Preventive medicine and physical activity center (ÉPIC) and at the Research center of the Montreal Heart Institute since 2006.

Associate professor, Department of Medicine, University of Montreal

His research activities focus on: 1) physiological responses (cerebral, cardiac, O2 chain transport) during acute exercise in adults with CV risk factors or heart diseases; 2) optimization of exercise training program and their impact on pulmonary, cardiac and muscle function in cardiac patients. The high intensity interval training (HIIT) or the use of aqua bike for exercise are examples of clinical transfer of its research activities at the ÉPIC Center.

His research interest focus on:

1) Validity and physiological responses of field tests (walking test, aqua-bike, aqua-running) to assess aerobic fitness

2) Optimization of high intensity interval training (HIIT) in cardiac patients

3) The impact of Mediterranean diet and HIIT on body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors.

4) Relationship between brain and cardiac hemodynamic, 𝑉̇O2max and cognitive function in adults with different CV status.

5) Periodization of the exercise training program and their impact on pulmonary, cardiac and muscular functions/adaptations in cardiac patients

Profil : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mathieu-Gayda

Mathieu Gayda, Ph.D.
Associated Researcher

Clinical Scientists

Anil Nigam, MD.
Cardiologist and Research Scientist

Coming up.

Anil Nigam, MD.
Cardiologist and Research Scientist

Josep (Pep) Iglesies Grau, MD.
Cardiology Fellow

Dr Josep Iglesies-Grau, is a cardiologist from Barcelone, Catalonia.
He did his Medical Degree from 2007 to 2013 and continued his medical path in the field of Cardiology completing his residency training in 2019. In 2013 he did an internship in the World Medical Association in Switzerland and he was also very involved during his years of medical student as president of medical students in Catalonia and representative at the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA).

In 2018, he started his ongoing PhD in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, in a project that wanted to assess and quantify subclinical atherosclerosis in young adults from a socioeconomically disadvantaged community (Harlem), assessing it by 3D vascular ultrasound.

In 2021, he started a clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation at Centre Epic and the Montreal Heart Institute in Canada. His professional interests vary from physical activity, nutrition, insulin resistance remission, the relationship between the heart and the brain and lifestyle changes.

Josep (Pep) Iglesies Grau, MD.
Cardiology Fellow

Valérie Dionne, Inf., IPSSA (MHI)
Masters Student

A nurse practitioner specialized in cardiology since 2011 at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), Valérie Dionne has developed a wide range of clinical expertise. She is currently working on a Master’s degree in biomedical sciences under the direction of Dr. Louis Bherer, and is coordinating the DIABÉPIC2 project on type 2 diabetes remission.

Valérie Dionne, Inf., IPSSA (MHI)
Master’s Student

Post-doctoral Fellows

Florent Besnier, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Dr Florent BESNIER has been involved in clinical trials and cardiovascular rehabilitation in the past 12 years. His work focuses on exercise physiology in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. From 2014 to 2018, his PhD project at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases (Toulouse, France) aimed to: 1/ study the effects of short bouts of high intensity exercise training on cardiorespiratory fitness and the autonomic nervous system in a context of chronic heart failure, and 2/ to better understand the physiopathological mechanisms underlying the effect of exercise training on cardiac remodelling (cardiomyocyte morphology & cardiac tissue organization). In May 2019, Dr Florent Besnier joined Prof. Louis Bherer’s research team as a postdoctoral researcher at the EPIC center of the Montreal Heart Institute. His project consists of studying the effects of cognitive and physical training on physical and brain health in chronic heart failure patients. Dr Florent BESNIER has also developed clinical research projects on the optimization of an exercise training program in coronary heart disease patients, and on the rehabilitation of people suffering from COVID-19 long-term symptoms of fatigue and / or dyspnea.

Florent Besnier, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Emma Dupuy, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Emma DUPUY has an academic background in Biomedical Sciences specialized in Neurosciences. In 2015, she started a Ph.D. in Science and Technique of Physical and Sports Activities at U1075 COMETE laboratory, UNICAEN/INSERM. Her thesis work aimed to characterize the involvement of the proprioceptive system in the regulatory mechanisms underlying movement production by studying a rare pathology: the hypermobility type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the EPIC center of Montreal Heart Institute under the supervision of Pr. Louis Bherer. She is mainly interested in the interactions between sensory and cognitive mechanisms for movement control. She is now attempting to investigate how these mechanisms change within aging populations in response to preventive interventions by combining a behavioral approach with neuroimaging.

Emma Dupuy, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Hanieh Mohamadi, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Hanieh Mohammadi is currently (year 2021) a postdoctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering at the EPIC Centre of the Montreal Heart Institute, Canada. Hanieh’s specialty is Cardiovascular Engineering and is actively researching heart-brain interaction and its impact on cognition.

During her Ph.D. studies at Polytechnique Montreal, Canada, Hanieh non-invasively assessed brain pulsatility using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). She quantified brain pulsatility in healthy young older adults and in individuals with cardiovascular risk factors and coronary artery disease. Hanieh’s research indicated that higher brain pulsatility is associated with cortical thinning and lower cognitive performance in older adults. In addition, she studied the short-term and long-term impact of physical activity on brain pulsatility. Her research indicates that NIRS is a promising tool for the quantification of pulsatility in cerebral microcirculation. Hanieh’s research suggests that pulsatility may become a new parameter in patients’ clinical profiles. Her work on brain pulsatility was a continuation of her master’s studies in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bern, Switzerland. During her master’s studies, she developed a novel signal processing method to extract brain signals from superficial signals in NIRS data. As part of her master’s education, Hanieh attended the physics and nanotechnology program at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland where she spent two years applying optical systems to study the effect of aging on elastic properties of red blood cells. During her bachelor’s studies in Biomedical Engineering, Hanieh used neural networks to estimate fetal weight from ultrasound data.

Hanieh’s research interest is heart-brain interaction, vascular aging, cerebral pulsatility, and age-related cognitive decline using the modalities of MRI, NIRS, and Doppler ultrasound. She is passionate about the applications of cardiovascular engineering in aerospace medicine.

Hanieh Mohamadi, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral Fellow
UdM

Doctoral Students

Anne-Julien Rocheleau
Doctoral Student
IUGM (Concordia)

Biography coming soon!

Anne Julien Rocheleau
Doctoral Student
IUGM (Concordia)

Caroll-Ann Blanchette
Doctoral Student M.Sc.
UdM

Caroll-Ann completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Gregory L. West, PhD. During her Master’s degree, she focused on the influence of video games and technologies on the hippocampal memory system. Also at the Université de Montréal, Caroll-Ann is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in Biomedical Sciences with an option in Aging Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer, PhD. For her doctorate, her ambition is to better understand the effects of cognitive training on the cognition and quality of life of heart failure patients in order to better adapt the care provided to patients. Caroll-Ann is the recipient of a training grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec en santé (FRQS) for her doctoral studies.

Caroll-Ann Blanchette
Doctoral Student M.Sc.
UdM

Tudor Vrinceanu
Doctoral Student M.A.
UdM

Tudor Vrinceanu received a Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) fellowship to pursue a PhD in biomedical sciences at Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. His primary research focuses on the association between cardiac electrophysiology and cognition in aging. His secondary interests focus on the preventive effects of physical exercise and cognitive training on cognitive performance in aging.

Previously, during his MA at Concordia University Tudor obtained a Canada Graduate Scholarship offered by CIHR to compare the impact of aerobic training and dance movement training on chronic stress biomarkers. Finally, during his Undergraduate at McGill University Tudor worked on projects involving musical cognition, pain perception and cardiovascular responses to emotional stimuli.

Selected publications:

Pothier, K., Vrinceanu, T., Intzandt, B., Bosquet, L., Karelis, A.D., Lussier, M., Vu, T.T.M., Nigam, A., Li., K.Z.H., Berryman, N., & Bherer, L. (2021). A Comparison of Physical Exercise and Cognitive Training Interventions to Improve Determinants of Functional Mobility in Healthy Older Adults. Experimental Gerontology, In Press, (EXG-D-20-00687R2

Vrinceanu, T., Lagacé-Lavoie, G., Kaushal, N., Esmail, A., Vu, T. T. M., Berryman, N., Nigam, A., & Bherer, L. (2020). Mind the Rhythm: ECG QT Dispersion and Cognition in Healthy Older Adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(566341):1-9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566341

Esmail, A., Vrinceanu, T., Lussier, M., Predovan, D., Berryman, N., Houle, J., Karelis, A., Grenier, S., Vu, T. T. M., Villalpando, J. M., & Bherer, L. (2020). Effects of dance/movement training vs. aerobic exercise training on cognition, physical fitness and quality of life in older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 24(1):212-220. doi: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.05.004

Lussier, M., Kathia, S., Vrinceanu, T., Hudon, C. & Bherer, L. (2020). Normative Data for a Tablet-Based Dual-Task Assessment in Healthy Older Adults. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, acaa121. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acaa121

Vrinceanu, T., Esmail, A., Berryman, N., Predovan, D., Vu, T. T. M., Villalpando, J. M., Pruessner, J. C., & Bherer, L. (2019). Dance your stress away: comparing the effect of dance/movement training to aerobic exercise training on the cortisol awakening response in healthy older adults. Stress, 22(6):687-695. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2019.1617690

Yakobov, E., Suso-Ribera, C., Vrinceanu, T., & Sullivan, M. (2018). Trait perceived injustice is associated with pain outcomes in healthy participants undergoing an experimental pain induction procedure: scale development and validation, The Journal of Pain, accepted.

Gilchrist, T. P., Vrinceanu, T., Beland, S., Bacon, S. L., & Ditto, B. (2016). Disgust stimuli reduce heart rate but do not contribute to vasovagal symptoms. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 51, 116-122.

Vrinceanu, T. (2015). Perceived injustice and pain outcomes in a healthy student sample. PSI – The McGill Psychology Undergraduate Journal, 5, 51-60.

Tudor Vrinceanu
Doctoral Student M.A.
UdM

Kathia Saillant
Doctoral Student M.Sc.
Co-management Gilles Dupuis UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

It was after working with cognitively impaired seniors that Kathia decided to undertake a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, which she completed between 2014 and 2017. It was during her last year of her bachelor’s degree, that she joined Dr. Louis Bherer’s laboratory as a research assistant. She continued her involvement in the laboratory as a student in the Master’s program in Biomedical Sciences at the Université de Montréal from 2017-2019. Her project aimed to evaluate the impact of statin intake on the cognitive benefits associated with aerobic training in older adults.

In 2019, she began her doctoral studies in Neuropsychology (Psy.D./Ph.D.) at the University of Quebec in Montreal, under the supervision of Dr. Bherer and Dr. Gilles Dupuis. During her Ph.D., Kathia is seeking to better understand the effects of physical activity levels on cognition and quality of life in older adults, and whether there is an optimal level of activity to engage in. She has a particular interest in older athletes. As of 2021, Kathia was awarded a 4-year training grant for her doctoral studies from the Fonds de recherche du Québec en santé (FRQS).

Since joining LESCA in 2016, she has been involved in various research projects focusing on the impact of physical activity and/or cognitive training on older adults’ cognition. She also provides support for Neuropeak, a cognitive assessment and training platform.

Kathia Saillant, M.Sc.
Doctoral Student
Co-management Gilles Dupuis UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Béatrice Bérubé
Doctoral Student M.Sc.
Co-management Antony Karelis UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Béatrice Bérubé started at LESCA during her last year of a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). She completed an honours thesis under the supervision of Drs. Louis Bherer and Dave Saint-Amour working on an exploratory case study established to characterize the fitness and cognitive performance of an elderly master athlete.

She persued a master’s degree at the University of Montreal (UdeM) in psychology from 2017 to 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. Her master’s work aimed to better understand the the heart-brain axis in healthy participants and coronary heart disease patients by measuring the effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance and on cerebral oxygenation.

In 2019, Béatrice began her doctoral studies in neuropsychology (Psy.D / Ph.D) at UQAM under the supervision of Drs Antony Karelis and Louis Bherer. The objective of her research work is to measure the effects of physical exercise on cerebral autoregulation and cognitive performance among older adults with chronic heart failure. In 2021, she was awarded a 4-year doctoral scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS).

Since 2017, she also has been carrying on her work as a research assistant at LESCA. Béatrice was involved in numerous projects about the relationship between physical exercise and cognition in older adults, either healthy, with cognitive impairment, or with cardiovascular diseases. She aims to become an expert in cognitive decline prevention through lifestyle habits as well as in neuropsychological assessment of both vascular neurocognitive disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

Béatrice Bérubé
Doctoral Student M.Sc.
Co-Direction Antony Karelis UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Marie Payer
Doctoral Student
Co-management Marie-France Marin UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

In 2017 I joined the cognitive health and aging research lab to gain research experience. Since then, I worked on several research project and discover my strong desire to pursue a career in this field of study. At my last year of undergraduate studies, I completed an honor thesis which evaluated the differences of cognitive performance and cerebral activation between young and older adults during a working memory task. The completion of this thesis helped me confirm my research interests which include cerebral imaging and cognition.

I am currently pursuing my academic training in graduated studies to not only gain research knowledge but also a clinical expertise. For the next years I will focus my efforts on an ambitious research project bringing together my research interests. Within this project, I will document the link between stress and cognition in individuals with cardiovascular risks. I will therefore try to assess the effect of health condition on stress and cognition.

Marie Payer
Doctoral Student
Co-management Marie-France Marin UQAM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Miloudza Olmand
Doctoral Student
UdM(D.Psy)

Miloudza Olmand completed her bachelor’s degree in cognitive neuroscience (Honour’s program) in 2019 at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. During her honourary journey, she was interested in the contribution of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive performance in an elderly sample.

Miloudza is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Montreal, under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. She is also a research assistant at the EPIC center of the Montreal Heart Institute. She is involved in the data collection of several projects carried out within the research team. As part of her doctoral essay, Miloudza will work on the impact of self-reported physical activity on the normative data of a neuropsychological test frequently used in an elderly population.

Miloudza Olmand
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Catia Lecchino
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Biography coming soon!

Catia Lecchino
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Sarah Clavet
Master’s Student
UdM

Sarah completed a BAC in cognitive neuroscience, with an honor thesis, at University of Montreal. She is currently undertaking her Ph.D. in research/intervention, in clinical neuropsychology, at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Dr Bherer. Sarah takes great interest in the close relationship between heart health and brain functions. More specifically, her project investigates the association between the autonomic nervous system and cognitive functions in older adults suffering from coronary artery disease. Sarah received scholarships from the CIHR and the FRQS to fund her degree.

Sarah Clavet
Doctoral Student
UdM

Marianne Lévesque
Doctoral Student M.A.
Co-management Paolo Vitali UdM (D.Psy)

Following an international bachelor’s degree in psychology with honours at York University in Toronto, Marianne completed a master’s degree in research at Laval University in Quebec. Interested in neurodegenerative diseases, she worked under the supervision of Dr. Robert Jr. Laforce on the validation of a new cognitive screening tool for atypical dementias; le Dépistage Cognitif de Québec (DCQ). Furthermore, during her master’s degree, she held a position as a liaison for the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network Expanded Registry (DIAN EXR), in partnership with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Marianne is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Montreal (D.Psy.). Her doctoral project, supervised by Dr. Louis Bherer and Dr. Paolo Vitali, investigates the effects of physical exercise on cognition in primary progressive aphasia.

Marianne Lévesque
Doctoral Student M.A.
Co-management Paolo Vitali UdM (D.Psy)

Fanny Sellier
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

After a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at the University of Bordeaux (France), Fanny graduated as a neuropsychologist in June 2022 in France. Her practice with various adult populations (geriatric, psychiatric, brain damaged…) allowed her to acquire strong skills in the use of neuropsychological tools and in the understanding of cognitive disorders. During her studies, Fanny wrote two thesis: the first one, in fundamental research, was about the effect of hypnotic suggestions on the process of identifying emotional words, and the second one, linked with her internship, was about the adaptation of a neuropsychological assessment for unilateral spatial neglect.

Today, Fanny is a doctoral student in clinical neuropsychology (Psy.D.) at the University of Montreal. She has research activities under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. Within the EPIC centre of the Montreal Heart Institute, Fanny is interested in the effects of interventions on the physical and cognitive health of people with cardiovascular diseases. She is also involved in data collection for research projects. Her doctoral research will focus on the close link between cognitive functions and functional capacities in cardiovascular diseases.

Fanny Sellier
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Alexandre Prud’Homme-Maisonneuve
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Following the acquisition of a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (BBA), a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Psychology and various professional experiences with young people and adults in difficulty, Alexandre headed to the University of Montreal to complete a doctorate in clinical neuropsychology (DPsy). His desire to understand and prevent the impacts of aging on brain health and his love for physical activity led him to continue his journey at LESCA under the supervision of Dr. Bherer. Alexandre’s research interests include psychology, physical activity, cardiovascular health and normal and pathological aging.

Alexandre Prud’Homme-Maisonneuve
Doctoral Student
UdM (D.Psy)

Sarah Boudaa
Doctoral Student
UdM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Sarah is a research assistant at the ÉPIC center of the Montreal Heart Institute since 2020. She is currently a doctoral candidate in clinical neuropsychology – research and intervention (Ph.D.) at the University of Montreal, under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer. Sarah is interested in neuroimaging and cognitive decline. As part of her doctoral research, she is studying the impact of a non-pharmaceutical intervention on brain pulsatility and cognition in older people with heart failure. She received a CIHR research grant to support her graduate study project.

Sarah Boudaa
Doctoral Student
UdM (Ph.D./D.Psy)

Master's Students

Katia Jaulgey
Master’s Student
UdM

After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ottawa in 2022, Katia then began a master’s degree in clinical sciences with an option in aging sciences at the University of Montreal. She is especially interested in healthy aging and cognition as well as biological factors that can influence them. Under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer and Dr. Éric Thorin, her master’s project focuses on the variation of inflammatory biomarkers concentration levels according to the effect of physical exercise in the elderly. She will also evaluate the contribution of these biological changes to behavioral changes in order to better understand the link between the inflammatory environment and cognition in the elderly. Within LESCA, Katia is also involved in the ACTIONcardioRisk project as a research assistant.

Katia Jaulgey
Master’s Student
UdM

Juliana Breton
Master’s Student
UdM

Juliana joined Dr. Bherer’s team two years ago after completing a bachelor’s degree in cognitive neuroscience with a major in neuropsychology at the Université de Montréal. Since January 2022, she has been coordinating the ACTIONcardioRisk project with the help of a dynamic team. Juliana is pursuing her graduate studies in the laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Bherer. Her research interests include brain imaging, cognition, optimal aging and the impact of physical activity on these areas. The ACTION project fits perfectly with her interests.

Juliana Breton
Master’s Student
UdM

Research Personnel

Simon-Olivier Cloutier
Planning, Programming and Research Officer (M.Sc.)

À venir.

Simon-Olivier Cloutier
Planning, Programming and Research Officer (M.Sc.)

Justine Devost
Research Student

Having completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2022 at Université de Montréal, Justine joined Dr Bherer’s laboratory to further her knowledge in cognitive health and aging. After having worked in intervention for some years, Justine is now a research assistant at Centre EPIC. Wanting to further her studies in grad school, Justine’s interests consist of developmental psychology, mental health and cognitive decline.

Justine Devost
Research Student

Nicolas Martin
Kinesiologist

Nicolas Martin earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Université de Montréal in 2021. As part of his undergraduate studies, he completed a directed research project on dietary supplementation practices among high-level athletes and carried out a literature review focusing on educational methods to prevent the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports.

Passionate about endurance sports, he is also National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) trained coach in athletics, having worked in recent years with different populations of varying ages and levels, from recreational runners to elite athletes.

His research interests include the link between lifestyle habits (physical activity, diet, sleep, stress management) and cardiometabolic health, aerobic exercise training methods in cardiovascular rehabilitation, as well as prevention of sarcopenia and optimization of quality of life in the aging population through physical activity and nutrition.

Nicolas Martin
Kinesiologist

Roxane St-Amand
Kinesiologist

Biologist and Kinesiologist, Roxane completed her master’s degree in exercise physiology at the University of Montreal in 2020. She is very interested in metabolic pathways and the effect of nutrition. Her thesis is on the subject of hepatic steatosis and the effects of high-fat and high-fructose diets on lipid metabolism.

Roxane St-Amand is now a research assistant in Dr. Bherer’s laboratory. In this position, Roxane works mainly on research projects related to physical activity and its effects on cognitive functions, its preventive action against cardiovascular diseases and its physiological impacts in people living with type 2 diabetes.