With the 2025 Flux Congress just around the corner, the Flux Trainee Committee is excited to spotlight some of your fellow attendees through our trainee research profiles. If you’re a trainee—whether a student, post-bacc, or postdoc—and would like to be featured, we invite you to fill out our interest form!
At Flux, we are committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers who are shaping the future of developmental cognitive neuroscience. In our new Trainee Spotlight series, we will highlight the achievements, aspirations, and contributions of outstanding trainees within our community. These young scientists are not only pushing the boundaries of research but also embodying the spirit of collaboration and innovation that drives our field forward.
Today, we are excited to introduce Léa Michel. Let's dive into their journey, insights, and what motivates them to make a lasting impact in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
Léa Michel
Graduate Student (PhD), Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
What is the focus of your research?
My PhD questions what we miss when we look solely at measures of grey matter structure or measures of white matter structure in the brain in association with behaviour or the environment, for instance.
What is your most interesting research finding or inquiry so far?
Hmm, it's difficult to choose but I would say my project investigating how histological metrics help explain individual differences in global cognitive performance metrics above and beyond MRI measures. It's a bit of a long story, my PhD led me down a rabbit hole trying to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying common MRI metrics such as cortical thickness. I ended up finding some papers linked to a cohort of patients that had undergone neurosurgery and so had data including IQ scores, MRI scans and histological measures from a resection of cortical tissue. I contacted the PI and we started a collaboration! It's a fascinating dataset and so far we've found that histological measures such as dendritic structure do explain differences in IQ but that information does not appear to be mediated by cortical thickness.
What do you enjoy doing when not working on your PhD?
When I'm not working on my PhD, I enjoy creative hobbies such as sewing, painting, and sculpture. I play Roller Derby and also learn salsa dancing with my boyfriend.
Best piece of advice you have received as a trainee?
"Your health is more important than your PhD." This sounds quite simple but it's so easy to forget: your physical AND mental health should always be a priority. I'm very lucky to have very supportive colleagues around me who keep reminding me.
Do you have any advice for early-stage trainees?
Explore things outside of your projects. A PhD is the perfect time to explore your interests outside of research. During my PhD, I did a lot of public outreach, co-created the Green Team for our department, and became chair of the sustainability group for a major society. I even tried to create a website facilitating collaboration between PhD students. It allowed me to gain a lot of skills, meet a lot of people, and also get my head out of my PhD sometimes.
Most useful resource that you would recommend to other trainees in developmental cognitive neuroscience?
Not one specific resource per se, but my advice is: create a personal website! You can build one on GitHub or other platforms. The most important thing is to have an online presence so that people know what you do and can reach out to you.
Are you presenting at the Flux meeting in Dublin?
Yes, I will be presenting a poster and a flash talk on "The Neural Scars of Adversity: How Do Different Kinds of Adversity Predict the Development of Grey and White Matter Structure in Two Longitudinal Neuroimaging Cohorts?"
Please list any social media accounts/personal websites that you would like us to highlight.
https://bsky.app/profile/leacmichel.bsky.social;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/l%C3%A9a-camille-michel/;