Brain, Action, and Skill (BAS) Laboratory

Research

Topics of particular interest to the lab include understanding how we learn and automate movements through extensive practice, addressing the adverse effects of ageing and stroke on movement control, and learning how imagining actions, and observing the actions of others, affects our movement system. We address these questions using a multidisciplinary combination of behavioral experiments (reaction and movement time measurements using computer and motion tracking apparatus), meta-analytic approaches (with particular emphasis on the meta-analysis of brain imaging data using the Activation likelihood Estimation approach), non-invasive brain stimulation (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), and neuroimaging techniques (functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Research in the lab has been supported by grants from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), the FSR, The European Research Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship scheme, The Society for the Neural Control of Movement, and the Wellcome Trust.

Principal Investigator

HARDWICK Robert

Postdoctoral Fellows:

PhD Students

Several projects are conducted with international collaborators in:

the USA (Johns Hopkins),
the UK (University of Birmingham)
Germany (Forschungszentrum Julich)
Through local collaborations within Belgium (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).

Validating Accelerometry as a tool for measuring the effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Cognitive Interactions in Motor Imagery
Inhibitory control during Action Simulation

Information processing in the Hand Laterality Judgement Task: Fundamental differences between dorsal and palmar views revealed by a “forced response” paradigm
Moreno-Verdu M, Waltzing BM, McAteer SM, Van Caenegem E, Hamoline G, Hardwick RM
Cortex, 2025.
Separate Timescales for Spatial and Anatomical Information Processing of Body Stimuli
Waltzing BM, McAteer S, Moreno-Verdu M, Van Caenegem EE, Du Y, Hardwick RM
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2025.
Multisensory approach in Mental Imagery: ALE meta-analyses comparing Motor, Visual and Auditory Imagery.
Van Caenegem EE, Moreno-Verdú M, Waltzing BM, Hamoline G, McAteer SM , Frahm L, Hardwick RM.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioural Reviews, 2024.
Inhibition, Shifting and Updating: inter and intra-domain commonalities and differences from an Executive Functions activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.
Rodríguez-Nieto G*, Seer C*, Sidlauskaite J, Vleugels L, Van Roy A, Hardwick RM#, Swinnen S# (equal contributions: * Co-first authors, # Co-senior authors).
NeuroImage, 2022.
Age-related increases in reaction time result from slower preparation, not delayed initiation.
Hardwick RM, Forrence AD, Costello MG, Zachowski K, Haith AM.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 2022.
Time-Dependent Competition Between Goal-Directed and Habitual Response Preparation.
Hardwick RM, Forrence AD, Krakauer JW, Haith AH.
Nature Human Behaviour, 2019

Publications

2025
- Article de journal
  
  Moreno-Verdú, M., Waltzing, B. M., McAteer, S. M., Van Caenegem, E. E., Hamoline, G., & Hardwick, R. M. (2025). Information processing in the Hand Laterality Judgement Task: Fundamental differences between dorsal and palmar views revealed by a “forced response” paradigm. Cortex, 189(1), 226-241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2025.06.002 (Original work published 2025)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/247935
- McAteer, S. M., Waltzing, B. M., Van Caenegem, E. E., Hamoline, G., Denys, A., Moreno-Verdú, M., & Hardwick, R. M. (2025). Effects of physical practice on the duration of motor imagery. Behavioural Brain Research, 479(1), 115354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115354 (Original work published 2025)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/247931
- Orban de Xivry, J.-J., & Hardwick, R. M. (2025). A control policy can be adapted to task demands during both motor execution and motor planning. Journal of Neurophysiology, 133(1), 232-244. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00410.2023 (Original work published 2025)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/247929
- Van Malderen, S., Hehl, M., Nuyts, M., Verstraelen, S., Heemels, R. E., Hardwick, R. M., Swinnen, S. P., & Cuypers, K. (2025). Age-related differences in task-related modulation of cerebellar brain inhibition. Neurobiology of Aging, 150(1), 53-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2025.02.009 (Original work published 2025)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/247936
- Moreno-Verdú, M., McAteer, S. M., Waltzing, B. M., Van Caenegem, E. E., & Hardwick, R. M. (2025). Development and validation of an open-source hand laterality judgement task for in-person and online studies. Neuroscience, 572, 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2025.02.056 (Original work published 2025)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/247933
2017
- Article de journal
  
  Hardwick, R. M., & Celnik, P. (2017). The carrot and the stick seem to enhance motor learning in patients with stroke. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(9), 715. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2017-315767 (Original work published 2017)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/167931
2011
- Article de journal
  
  Loporto, M., McAllister, C., Williams, J., Hardwick, R. M., & Holmes, P. (2011). Investigating central mechanisms underlying the effects of action observation and imagery through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Journal of Motor Behavior, 43(5), 361-373. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222895.2011.604655 (Original work published 2011)
  
  https://research.dial.uclouvain.be/handle/2078.5/167930

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