SYLVAIN HARQUEL

My research primarily focuses on innovative non-invasive brain stimulation, including robotized TMS, TMS-EEG mapping and closed-loop approaches, to study the healthy and pathological brain. I am particularly interested in understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying stroke motor and cognitive impairment and recovery, with the ultimate goal of designing and optimizing neuromodulation-based rehabilitation therapies. I'm conducting this research as part of the body and space team. Within the pôle ingéniérie, I also work across the research teams of the lab on clinical and cognitive neuroscience projects requiring expertise in human electrophysiology or cortical stimulation. Finally, I am co-supervisor of the EEG and Neurostim platforms at the UAR IRMaGe neuroimaging facility.

Ongoing Projects

ANR SLEEPY-STROKE (as PI, ANR JCJC 2025)

SLEEPY-STROKE is a research project aiming to better understand and improve recovery after stroke by studying and modulating sleep-like cortical dynamics (SLCDs, which are abnormal, slowed and simplified brain activity patterns observed in the affected hemisphere). Using robotized TMS-EEG and advanced neuroimaging, the project will track how SLCDs spread across motor and cognitive brain networks, how they change during recovery, and how they relate to patient outcomes. It will also test an innovative, personalized non-invasive brain stimulation protocol designed to attenuate SLCDs and trigger a beneficial disinhibition phase in the early subacute stage. By integrating advanced neurophysiological characterization with innovative neuromodulation strategies, SLEEPY-STROKE aims to pave the way for precision rehabilitation approaches in stroke recovery.

PhD: Alexandra Jasaityte

IR: Sina Varmaghani

TMS-EEG mapping & closed-loop (as PI, CERCOG 2025 & 2026)

This project aims to develop TMS-EEG and adaptive closed-loop brain state-dependent stimulation protocols. In particular, the goal is to design TMS-EEG closed-loop stimulation that could overcome known limitations, first by incorporating adaptive decision-making modeling to optimize for multiple parameters in parallel (stimulation location, orientation, intensity) while using a wide range of EEG readouts (evoked potentials, frequency-band power, connectivity, etc.), and by integrating state-of-the-art EEG real-time preprocessing to access any cortical target (including frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes). 

We recently joined the T4TE project, an open large-scale initiative to improve the quality of TMS-EEG research.

ANHEDOSTIM (as co-PI with Dr. Pouchon, PROPSY-EDU 2026)

Mood disorders are often associated with partial treatment response, with anhedonia representing a particularly debilitating symptom linked to impaired functioning and chronicity. The ANHEDOSTIM project aims to evaluate accelerated, functionally personalized rTMS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex–nucleus accumbens (dlPFC–NAcc) circuit in patients with major depressive disorder, bipolar depression, or persistent depressive disorder and clinically significant anhedonia. Treatment response will be assessed through changes in anhedonia, depressive symptoms, functioning, quality of life, and motivation. By combining functional MRI, high-density EEG, behavioral assessments, and neurocomputational modeling, the project seeks to identify neurobiological mechanisms and individual predictors of response, advancing personalized neuromodulation strategies.

TiMeS (PI: Prof. Friedhelm Hummel, EPFL, Geneva)

This research project investigates changes in brain functions that occur after a stroke, and studies how these alterations are related to the recovery of different functions and the daily life of the patients. This is investigated by covering the first year after the initial incident at 4 time points (1st week, 3rd week, 3rd month and 12th month), with the use of multimodal and complementary neuroimaging techniques, including structural and diffusion MRI, resting-state EEG and TMS-EEG. The acquired knowledge will pave the way to develop tailored therapy approaches. These therapy approaches will be based on the individual characteristics of the patient.

MAGTOC (PI: Mircea Polosan, CHUGA)

Deficient motor inhibition is observed in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Evidence points toward the essential role of two cortical nodes, the pre-SMA and the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), in the brain network supporting response inhibition. This project consisted in a sham-controlled, double-blind and parallel design clinical trial, that aimed at enhancing cortical excitability within the right IFC using intermittent theta-burst stimulation delivered twice a day during two weeks. The stimulation target was individualized to each patient in respect to the maximum activation peak within the right IFC node of the activated motor inhibition network, as observed in fMRI scans during a stop-signal task. As a way to quantify the inhibitory process of the right IFC on the motor cortex, motor excitability was assessed before and after the iTBS cure using dual site TMS.

Disciplines scientifiques