top of page

Valéry Legrain - Principal investigator (IONS/COSY)

amouraux.jpg

The main research interest of the team led by Valery Legrain (IoNS/COSY) is to understand the cognitive mechanisms modulating the link between nociception and the conscious perception of pain, and the neurobiological substrates of these cognitive mechanisms. Three lines of research are developed. First, the group's researchers seek to understand and describe the cognitive factors that help modulate nociceptive responses and pain perception (e.g. selective attention, executive functions, multisensory interaction, and hypnosis). They also study whether cognitive functions could prevent the development of central sensitization to pain. Second, the group studies how pain and the central sensitization it can induce disrupt cognitive functioning (i.e. attention, memory, body and spatial representation). The third line of research aims to understand how pain interacts with other sensory modalities, such as vision and proprioception, in order to mentally represent the peripersonal space and to facilitate reaction against potentially damaging stimuli. These topics are studied in healthy volunteers on experimentally-induced pain as well as in patients suffering from chronic pain (e.g. complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia). Different approaches are used: neurophysiology (EEG, ESG, EMG, ERPs, TMS), psychophysics (threshold measurement, mental chronometry) and neuropsychology (study of patients with sensory-motor or attentional deficits).

Publications

2025

Early CRPS Is a Heterogeneous Condition: Results From a Latent Class Analysis

Eur J Pain

Louis MH, Legrain V, Aron V, Filbrich L, Henrard S, Barbier O, Libouton X, Mouraux D, Lambert J, Berquin A

29(2):e4785.

2024

Top-down attention does not modulate mechanical hypersensitivity consecutive to central sensitization: insights from an experimental analysis

Pain

Della Porta D, Scheirman E, Legrain V

165(9):2098-2110

2023

PDF

Atypical influence of biomechanical knowledge in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome-towards a different perspective on body representation

Sci Rep

Filbrich L, Verfaille C, Vannuscorps G, Berquin A, Barbier O, Libouton X, Fraselle V, Mouraux D, Legrain V

13(1):520.

2023

Characterizing biased visuospatial perception in complex regional pain syndrome

Eur J Pain

Filbrich L, Kuzminova A, Molitor V, Verfaille C, Mouraux D, Berquin A, Barbier O, Libouton X, Legrain V

in press.

2023

Perceptual simultaneity between nociceptive and visual stimuli depends on their spatial congruence

Exp Brain Res

Manfron L, Filbrich L, Molitor V, Farnè A, Mouraux A, Legrain V

in press

2022

Letter on the pain of blind people for the use of those who can see their pain

Pain

Legrain V, Filbrich L, Vanderclausen C.

in press.

2022

PDF

Biological and psychological early prognostic factors in complex regional pain syndrome: a systematic review.

Eur J Pain

Louis MH, Meyer C, Legrain V, Berquin A.

in press.

2022

No evidence for an effect of selective spatial attention on the development of secondary hyperalgesia: a replication study

Front Hum Neurosci

Della Porta D, Vila ML, Kuzminova A, Filbrich L, Mouraux A, Legrain V.

in press.

2021

No evidence for an effect of the distance between the hands on tactile temporal order judgments

Perception

Manfron L, Vanderclausen C, Legrain V.

50(4):294-307.

2021

Measuring the sensitivity of tactile temporal order judgments in sighted and blind participants using the adaptive psi method

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Vanderclausen C, Filbrich L, De Volder A, Legrain V.

83(7):2995-3007.

2020

Visuomotor impairments in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome during pointing tasks

Pain

Verfaille C, Filbrich L, Rossetti Y, Berquin A, Mouraux D, Barbier O, Libouton X, Fraselle V, Legrain V.

162(3):811-822.

2020

Rating the Intensity of a Laser Stimulus, but Not Attending to Changes in Its Location or Intensity Modulates the Laser-Evoked Cortical Activity

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Torta DME, Ninghetto M, Ricci R, Legrain V.

14:120

2020

Investigating perceptual simultaneity between nociceptive and visual stimuli by means of temporal order judgments

Neuroscience Letters

Manfron L, Filbrich L, Nijs E, Mouraux A, Legrain V.

735:135156.

2020

Rating the intensity of a laser stimulus, but not attending to changes in its location or intensity modulates the laser-evoked cortical activity

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Torta DME, Ninghetto M, Ricci R, Legrain V.

0.666666667

2020

An investigation of perceptual biases in complex regional pain syndrome

Peer J

De Paepe AL, Legrain V, Van der Biest L, Hollevoet N, Van Tongel A, De Wilde L, Crombez G.

8:e8819

Institute of Neuroscience (IONS) - Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)

  • facebook

NOCIONS : PAIN RESEARCH AT UCLOUVAIN

bottom of page