ABOUT US

Within the Faculty of Physical Education and Physical Therapy (LK) we contribute to the education of the "Physical Education and Movement Sciences"-students and the "Rehabilitation Sciences and Physical Therapy"-students, both at bachelor and master level. The MFYS learning lines that run through the programme of these two student groups are the Physiology and the Rehabilitation exercise training learning lines. The Physiology learning line includes typical subjects such as "Human Physiology", "Exercise Physiology", "Cellular Mechanisms", etc... The Rehabilitation exercise training line comprises subjects such as "Functional Training Therapy", "Sports Rehabilitation", "Training Principles and Concepts of Rehabilitation Training", "Sports Injury Prevention", etc...

Our research is focused on 'Exercise and the Brain in Health & Disease' on three levels: fundamental, applied/clinical and policy-making/benchmarking. The majority of our research projects contribute to all of these levels, with fundamental studies (e.g. animal experiments) followed by applied clinical studies, which in turn lead to benchmarking studies or policy-making advice. Below you can find a short overview of our research projects:

• Brain function during physical and cognitive effort in a healthy population
  • Physical fatigue, thermoregulation and brain neurotransmission
  • Placebo effects in exercise and sport
  • Mental fatigue and its interactions with physical and cognitive performance
• Brain function during physical and cognitive effort within a clinical context
  • Overtraining syndrome in athletes
  • The influence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases on the functioning of the brain
  • Returning to sport and the brain
  • Injury prevention: fatigue and neurocognitive aspects
• Health-promoting effects of active commuting to and from work (commuting by bicycle, cycling desk)
  • Health-promoting effects of commuting by bike
  • Exercise and air pollution on the functioning of the brain
• Nutrition and brain function
  • Cocoaflavanols and brain function during cognitive and physical exercise
• Interaction between humans and robots:
  • is made possible via the Strategic Research Programme: Exercise and the Brain in Health & Disease: The Added Value of Human-Centered Robotics and encompasses the following projects: 
    • AMP foot: Physical and cognitive load during general and day-to-day activities of lower leg amputated people
    • Cyberlegs++: Physical and cognitive load during general and daily activities of people with upper leg amputation
    • Exo4Work: Interaction between humans and exoskeleton in laboratory and industrial settings
    • SOPHIA: Improving workplace ergonomy through collaborative robots

• MFYS founded the "Brussels Labo for Effort and TopSport" (BLITS). Not only elite athletes are welcome, but also (individual) recreational athletes and (top) sports clubs can come to BLITS for a sports medical examination and maximal exercise test. BLITS is also specialized in medical screening of people who practice a specific profession such as the agents of the Civil Protection and various fire brigades.

BLITS is located in the U-Residence (1st floor) on the VUB Campus in Etterbeek.
 

• MFYS also provides another third party service: ExoOO. Within ExoOO, commercially available exoskeletons are tested on the workfloor of interested companies. Besides the efficiency of exoskeletons, the acceptance of this technology by the employees is also being researched in collaboration with imec-SMIT-VUB. For more information about ExoOO, please contact Prof. Kevin De Pauw.