Alexandra Potvin-Desrochers is a fourth-year PhD student working with Dr. Caroline Paquette.
What inspired you to pursue your current degree?
I've always been fascinated by how the brain controls everything we do, especially our movements. My undergraduate and Master's degrees allowed me to learn more about motor control, but I wanted to be involved in the clinical aspect of it. That's why I decided to pursue a doctoral degree in neuroscience with Dr. Caroline Paquette, whose lab is in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. I was then able to combine my passions for neuroscience and motor control with my desire to have an impact on clinical populations by studying Parkinson's disease specifically.
What about neuroscience and your research area excites you?
The potential impact of our research for the benefit of the patients excites me the most. To find a way for people living with Parkinson's disease to have fewer walking impairments and the potential to improve their quality of life is exciting and inspiring!
What challenges do you find in your research and how do you try to overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges I face in my research is recruiting participants. People living with Parkinson's disease often have disabilities that make their everyday routine demanding, and this makes participating in research an additional challenge for them. That is why I find visiting patient-support groups and sharing knowledge about the disease a very important aspect of my work. Besides, this provides a great opportunity to pique their interest about participating in research. At the same time, it’s important for me to build strong relationships with our participants, so that they are motivated to participate in the experiments we conduct!
Describe your research and the implications of your project.
My research focuses on understanding what causes freezing of gait, a symptom of Parkinson's disease, and finding therapeutic interventions for people experiencing this symptom. To do this, I use brain imaging to uncover neural mechanisms behind freezing of gait as well as non-invasive brain stimulation to attempt to improve this symptom. My ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of people experiencing freezing of gait.
What are three of your favourite activities outside the lab?
Knitting, running and travelling!
What is one important thing you have learned during the pandemic?
The pandemic taught me to be resilient. We have faced (and we are still facing) situations in which we have no control. I've learnt to ''let go" and do whatever I can in those situations. The pandemic also gave me an opportunity to travel around the world, to share our research results with our fellows, and to discover different cultures.
