I am currently full professor of Neuroscience of Social Relations and a principal investigator within the CHANGE Research platform at the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit of Leiden University in the Netherlands. The central theme in my work is to investigate the interplay between social behavior and interpersonal relationships and development, which I address from an interdisciplinary perspective combining different methodologies.
My broad research interests cover the area of social and emotional development across the life span and its links with brain development. My current research focuses on the development of the social brain across adolescence, particularly in relation to social decision-making and in the peer context. During my PhD project at the Developmental Psychology Department at Radboud University Nijmegen I conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to examine the development of dyadic peer relationships in school classes of early and mid-adolescents, focusing both on friendships (based on mutual liking) and antipathy relationships (based on mutual disliking). These studies demonstrated the heterogeneity within the peer relationships and the links of various roles in relationships with psychosocial adjustment. Within this project I also examined the neural correlates of friendships in young adulthood using fMRI at the Donders Institute. This pioneering study was among the first to highlight the brain regions that are involved in social interactions with friends.
After obtaining my Ph.D., I joined the Brain & Development Research Center at Leiden University as a post-doctoral researcher. My work there explored the neurocognitive development of social decision-making in childhood and adolescence. I have used economic exchange paradigms such as the Ultimatum Game and brain imaging techniques, to examine the emotion-inducing (e.g., fairness, reciprocity) and emotion-regulating (e.g., self-interest) networks underlying social-decision making processes across participants aged between 8-25. My current research line falls within the field of Social Developmental Neuroscience and focuses on the neural correlates of social decision-making in the peer context across childhood and adolescence. I have been awarded a VENI grant from NWO (“The social brain in adolescence: Examining peer interactions from a developmental social neuroscience perspective”, (2011-2016) to investigate the links between psychosocial and brain development in peer interactions across adolescence. In this research I employed behavioural experiments and fMRI methods to examine social cognition and underlying neural mechanisms during interactions with peers. In two recent publications I provide an overview of current research examining peer relationships and the power of friendships from a neuroscientific perspective.
Since 2017, I am the principal investigator on a Start Impulse project on 'Optimal conditions for safety and education of youth' within the NeuroLabNL route of the National Research Agenda, where I investigate the neurobiological basis of social cognition in chronic peer victimization and the effectiveness of current anti-bullying programs in the Netherlands. Here you can read more about this larger project; see here more information on the sub-project that is embedded within Leiden University.
In 2017 I received the Johanna Westerdijk Award for outstanding female scientists. Within my current project funded by this award I investigate peer influences on social learning and reward processing. Here you can read more about this project.
I am a principal investigator within the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) consortium that investigates youth from the perspective of societal neuroscience, and combines insights and expertise from neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. The GUTS consortium is funded by a Gravitation grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for a ten-year period (2022-2032). The proposal can be downloaded here.
My broad research interests cover the area of social and emotional development across the life span and its links with brain development. My current research focuses on the development of the social brain across adolescence, particularly in relation to social decision-making and in the peer context. During my PhD project at the Developmental Psychology Department at Radboud University Nijmegen I conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to examine the development of dyadic peer relationships in school classes of early and mid-adolescents, focusing both on friendships (based on mutual liking) and antipathy relationships (based on mutual disliking). These studies demonstrated the heterogeneity within the peer relationships and the links of various roles in relationships with psychosocial adjustment. Within this project I also examined the neural correlates of friendships in young adulthood using fMRI at the Donders Institute. This pioneering study was among the first to highlight the brain regions that are involved in social interactions with friends.
After obtaining my Ph.D., I joined the Brain & Development Research Center at Leiden University as a post-doctoral researcher. My work there explored the neurocognitive development of social decision-making in childhood and adolescence. I have used economic exchange paradigms such as the Ultimatum Game and brain imaging techniques, to examine the emotion-inducing (e.g., fairness, reciprocity) and emotion-regulating (e.g., self-interest) networks underlying social-decision making processes across participants aged between 8-25. My current research line falls within the field of Social Developmental Neuroscience and focuses on the neural correlates of social decision-making in the peer context across childhood and adolescence. I have been awarded a VENI grant from NWO (“The social brain in adolescence: Examining peer interactions from a developmental social neuroscience perspective”, (2011-2016) to investigate the links between psychosocial and brain development in peer interactions across adolescence. In this research I employed behavioural experiments and fMRI methods to examine social cognition and underlying neural mechanisms during interactions with peers. In two recent publications I provide an overview of current research examining peer relationships and the power of friendships from a neuroscientific perspective.
Since 2017, I am the principal investigator on a Start Impulse project on 'Optimal conditions for safety and education of youth' within the NeuroLabNL route of the National Research Agenda, where I investigate the neurobiological basis of social cognition in chronic peer victimization and the effectiveness of current anti-bullying programs in the Netherlands. Here you can read more about this larger project; see here more information on the sub-project that is embedded within Leiden University.
In 2017 I received the Johanna Westerdijk Award for outstanding female scientists. Within my current project funded by this award I investigate peer influences on social learning and reward processing. Here you can read more about this project.
I am a principal investigator within the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) consortium that investigates youth from the perspective of societal neuroscience, and combines insights and expertise from neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. The GUTS consortium is funded by a Gravitation grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for a ten-year period (2022-2032). The proposal can be downloaded here.
