Research Interests

My research aims to improve treatments for emotional memory disorders by deepening our understanding of their neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms. Having worked on randomized controlled trials in psychiatric research, I’ve seen how crucial it is to thoroughly understand mental disorders before effective treatments can be developed. In my PhD, I investigate the cognitive and behavioral processes underlying emotional memories, employing advanced neuroimaging techniques to bridge the gap between lab-based findings and clinical application.

Biography

I graduated with honors in Medical Natural Sciences (2020) from Vrije Universiteit and completed internships at the Amsterdam UMC at the Anatomy and Neurosciences department, which fueled my interest in neurobiological research. I went on to pursue a Research Master in Cognitive Neuropsychology (2023, cum laude) at the same institution, where I completed my thesis on How Prediction Errors Shape Neural Dynamics Across the Visual Hierarchy using functional MRI. These experiences in cognitive psychology and neuroimaging have prepared me for my current PhD project, Changing Minds by Reshaping Memories, at the University of Amsterdam, where I aim to contribute to the advancement of emotional memory research.

Other links

• Amsterdam Emotional Memory lab

Research methods

• Experiments
• Laboratory studies
• Functional MRI
• Psychophysiology

Current research projects

In my PhD project, I aim to investigate how contextual (dis)similarity between past aversive events and novel therapeutic experiences can modulate (mal)adaptive emotional responses through memory (dis)integration, under the supervision of Dr. Vanessa van Ast and Prof. Dr. Merel Kindt.