I am an Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam Emotional Memory Lab at the Department of Psychology. As a cognitive neuroscientist working in clinical psychology, I use behavioural experimentation and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate mechanisms underlying the dynamics of emotional autobiographical memory.

Biography

After completing a clinical master (2009, cum laude), and a research master (2010, cum laude), I did my PhD (2016, cum laude) with Prof Merel Kindt and Dr H. Steven Scholte at the University of Amsterdam. For my post-doctoral training (November 2015-August 2018) I worked with Prof Emily Holmes and Prof Rik Henson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. During this time I was gratefully supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Union. Upon returning to Amsterdam, I received a NWO Veni grant for my project "In search of the affective engram of autobiographical memory". In 2023 I was awarded the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship 2023, allowing me to spend a semester at the NIAS.

Administrative roles

• Research Master Psychology track coordinator
• Chair of the department's Diversity and Inclusivity committee
• Member of the Research Master Psychology curriculum committee
• Member of the Research Master Psychology learning trajectories committee
• Course coordinator Scientific Writing and Presenting (research master psychology)
• Course coordinator Mood Anxiety and Psychotic Disorders (bachelor psychology)
• Member of the educational committee of the Dutch-Flemish Postgraduate school for Experimental Psychopathology research (EPP)

Currently, I have different research strands focusing on 1) the modification of emotional episodic memory, 2) developing novel experimental approaches to modelling episodic memories with high personal relevance, 3) qualities and mechanisms of intrusive thoughts, and 4) the role of olfaction in memory retrieval and episodic memory binding. Parallel to empirical studies, I am developing a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between emotional autobiographical memory, sense of self, and mental health.

Recently, I have been awared a NWO Vidi grant to develop a research framework that connects neuroscientific insights on the plasticity of single event memories with theories of autobiographical memory. I am specifically interested in the role of emotion and time in the transformation of memory networks. Eventually, I aim to understand how memories work together to create the stories of our lives.

Other affiliations

• Plasticity, Memory & Language (PML) ambassador for Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC)
• Dutch-Flemish Postgraduate school for Experimental Psychopathology research (EPP)
• Young talent on NWO Gravitation grant ‘New Science of Mental Disorders’ (NSMD)
• NIAS-KNAW Fellow, autumn '23/'24

Collaborations

• Prof Merel Kindt, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Dr Vanessa van Ast, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Prof Arnoud Arntz, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Prof Anita Jansen, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Prof Anne Roefs, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Dr Martina DiSimplicio, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
• Dr Deborah Talmi, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Prof Antje Horsch, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

• Copromotor of Faya Reinhold
• Copromotor of Jacqueline Peters, now post doc at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
• Copromotor of Inga Marie Freund
• Copromotor and primary supervisor of Linos Vossoughi
• In the supervisory team of Mona Klau

I am (co-)supervising 5 PhD candidates investigating the temporal orientation of intrusive thoughts (Linos Vossoughi), the modifiability and assessment of fear memory (Jack Peters), emotional memory and sleep (Faya Reinhold), emotional memory in a network perspective of mental health disorders (Inga Marie Freund), and network models of insomnia (Mona Klau).