On March 14th, led by master of ceremonies Daniel Lévesque, Full Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Director and Associate Vice-Rector of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, 28 candidates participated in the institutional competitions "Ma thèse en 180 secondes" and "Three Minute Thesis."

Charlotte Hendryckx won the first prize and the audience award for her presentation titled "Problematic behaviors after TBI: a rollercoaster in everyday life."

A Belgian neuropsychologist trained at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, she has been pursuing a PhD in Research and Intervention in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Université de Montréal (Quebec, Canada) since September 2019, under the joint supervision of Professor Carolina Bottari at CRIR and Professor Nadia Gosselin at CEAMS.

Hendryckx, who has participated in several science communication competitions and is ready to defend her thesis next June, is thrilled to take part in the national final which will take place on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, as part of the 91st Congress of the Acfas. "It's the culmination," she shares.

"Anger, sadness, frustration, joy: these emotions can malfunction in some people. Instead of being on a well-oiled rollercoaster, they find themselves in a car speeding uncontrollably, doing loop after loop without any means of control. This can happen after a head injury from a car accident or a fall, and these individuals may find themselves dealing with completely different behaviors," she explains. If some individuals with traumatic brain injury and their caregivers can feel neglected, the results of her research provide avenues for thought in developing new resources that would better support them.