available research projects master brain and cognitive

Available Research Projects Master Brain and Cognitive Sciences

[updated September 2014] 2014-2015

An important objective in the master Brain and Cognitive Sciences is to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for performing scientific research in Cognitive Science.

The goal of the research thesis is to provide our students with an opportunity to participate in all stages of scientific research, including the development of a research question, designing the experiment and the selection of the research methods to address the question, data collection and analysis, and interpretation of the data, and discussion. In case of a more theoretical research, the emphasis will be more on the development of the argument.

The following institutes have given an update on their Research Project Availabilities.

AMC ………………………………………………………….

NIN …………………………………………………………...

UvA …………………………………………………………..

VUmc …………………………………………………………

Other institutions ……………………………………….

1

Academic Medical Centre

2

Available Research Projects for Master Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Institute Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam

Lab Psychiatry, program for Mood Disorders

Title of Project Neurobiological Perspectives on Depression Vulnerability

Type of Project Clinical, translational, multi-modal, biological psychiatry

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Aart Schene, Dr. Eric Ruhé (Daily coach: Roel J.T. Mocking (MSc)

Duration Minimum 3 months

Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: Depression is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. This is mainly caused by its chronic recurrent nature: 80% of the patients who recovered from depression will experience a recurrence, with on average 7 subsequent depressive episodes. Secondary preventive therapy has therefore the potential to substantially reduce this burden to patients, families and societies. However, development hereof is hindered because research thus far has mainly focused on patients during a depressive episode. Therefore, in the DELTA-Neuroimaging study, we focus on patient who recovered from multiple depressive episodes, but are currently in remission. Using a combined case-control and prospective cohort design, we aim to get more insight in the mechanisms underlying depression recurrence. Using an extensive multi-modal approach, we measure neuroimaging (fMRI), neuropsychological, neuroendocrine and metabolic parameters at baseline, in the remitted patients compared to never-depressed controls. The neuropsychological test battery has been developed in cooperation with the University of Oxford to specifically test emotional biases and reward. During a 2.5 year follow-up, depression recurrence is monitored in the patients. If patients experience a recurrence, they are invited for the second assessment. Integrating these data with psychosocial measures (e.g. experience sampling method, mood induction) will eventually provide new preventive treatment targets. The student’s role in the project: Flexible including e.g.: Inclusion, data-acquisition (clinical, (f)MRI, neuropsychology), analysis (SPSS, SPM), writing (Article), presenting

Contact Person Roel J.T. Mocking (MSc)

Contact Information

[email protected] Tel: 020-8913694

Website DELTA

Remarks We are looking for an enthusiastic student who combines clinical inter-personal with analytical skills.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.amcpsychiatrie-depressie.nl/onderzoek_onderzoek_stemmingststoornissen_deltaneuroimaging_studie.htm


Institute: Department of Psychiatry, Academisch Medisch Centrum

Lab:

Title of Project: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and its Effects on Fear Extinction

Type of Project: Intervention study

Supervisor: Guido van Wingen; Nina Levar

Duration: 6-9 months (full-time)

Start date: asap

End date: -

Description of Research Project:

Previous studies have shown that the recall of fear extinction memories is dysfunctional in individuals with anxiety disorders (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder) indicating that the consolidation of the extinction memory is impaired. In recent studies, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to have the capacity of impacting the consolidation of memories and might therefore provide a new means to impact fear memories. The aim of the study is to investigate whether tDCS stimulation (anodal, cathodal) will enhance the extinction of a previously conditioned fear association. For this research, healthy participants will be recruited to participate in a 3-day study design. Subjects will undergo a fear conditioning (day 1) and extinction (day 2) paradigm. After the extinction phase, participants will either receive anodal, cathodal, or sham stimulation to the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. On day 3, the recall of extinction memory will be tested. Outcome measures throughout the study will be skin conductance response (SCR) and fear-potentiated startle.

The student’s role in the project:

We are looking for two students with an interest in fear research that will join the project full-time. Besides an independent work attitude, signal processing and Matlab experience are preferred. Students will be involved in all phases of the research including participant recruitment, independent conduction of the experimental sessions, and later analysis of the acquired data. In the first phase of the internship, students will familiarize themselves with the relevant literature and will be responsible for the recruitment and screening of participants. The student will receive an extensive training on the administration of tDCS. After data acquisition, the student will be introduced to data analysis methods. Results will be summarized in a final report. If you are interested in an internship position with us, please send us a short motivation along with your CV and course/grade overview.

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM

Contact Person: Nina Levar

Contact Information: [email protected]

Website: http://www.lebic-amc.nl/research-groups/guido-van-wingen

Remarks: -


http://www.lebic-amc.nl/research-groups/guido-van-wingen

Available Research Project

Institute Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam

Lab Dept of Psychiatry (Anxiety Disorders)

Title of Project Miosphonia: an imaging study on the neurobiology and the efficacy

of cognitive behavioural therapy

Type of Project Neuropsychological testing/imaging (fMRI study)

Supervisor Arjan Schröder, psychiatrist

Duration 4-6 months (flexible)

Start date Oct-Dec 2014 (flexible)

End date 2015

Description of Research Project: People who suffer from misophonia (i.e. hatred of sound) experience intense anger, which immediately arises when they hear certain specific sounds, usually produced by human beings. Most commonly these are eating related sounds, like lipsmacking and bite sounds, and sounds of breathing. When hearing these sounds, they feel the urge to scream and yell and even attack the source in order to make it stop. The intensity of these emotions causes avoidance behaviour, which leads to significant social dysfunctioning, due to loss of social contacts with family and friends. Misophonia is a relatively unknown and underrecognized disorder which cannot be classified within the current psychiatric classification systems, DSM-IV, DSM-V or ICD-10. Scientific knowledge on misophonia is scarce. This project is most likely the first one worldwide studying the neurobiology of misophonia and its treatment, developed in the AMC. More than 150 patients have been treated so far, using cognitive behavioural therapy. In the first phase of the neuroimaging project EEG paradigms were used. In the second phase we will focus on functional Magnetic Imaging (fMRI). Thirdly, genetic analysis will be performed to find a genetic correlation. The student’s role in the project: In the summer of 2014 we have proceeded with our fMRI study and started scanning the first subjects. In this second phase of the misophonia project the student will carry out the fMRI paradigms, in both misophonia patients and matched controls. He/she will use structural MRI, DTI and two neuropsychological paradigms. Also the fMRI data will be analyzed, using Matlab and SPM. In this project the student will gain a lot of experience operating fMRI and analyzing fMRI data. Some basic experience with fMRI and Matlab is recommended.

Contact Person Arjan Schröder

Contact Information [email protected]

Website http://www.amcpsychiatrie-angst.nl/behandeling_angststoornissen_misofonie.htm

Remarks

UvA

20

Master-student Internship for a minimum of 4 months starting in September 2014:

Background:

A role for essential micronutrients in programming the lasting effects of chronic early-life stress?

E.F.G. Naninck, K. Yam, L. Hoeijmakers, P.J. Lucassen, A. Korosi

Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences - Center for Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Early-life stress (ES) has adverse effects on cognitive function in adulthood, associated with lasting changes in hippocampal plasticity. We have previously established that chronic ES impairs adult cognition, parallel to early-onset alterations in postnatal and adult hippocampal neurogenesis in mice (Naninck et al., in prep). Nutritional input is a critical component of the early-life environment. Therefore we study if ES changes essential micronutrient levels, if this contributes to the ES-induced deficits and if these deficits can be prevented and/or reversed by nutritional intervention during the critical early-life developmental period. We focus on dietary methyl donors (e.g. folate, vitamin B6, B12), as these are required for neuronal development and for functioning of the epigenetic machinery that has been implicated in the lasting effects of ES. We therefore study; (i) if ES alters essential micronutrients in the maternal milk and centrally and peripherally in the offspring; and (ii) we characterize the epigenetic, structural and behavioral effects of ES in the offspring. Finally, (iii) we study if enrichment of the maternal diet during the ES period can reverse ES-induced changes in the offspring.

Project description:

Mice were exposed to chronic early-life stress by limiting bedding/nesting material from postnatal day (P) 2-9. During this period, dams received either control or methyl donor supplemented diet. After this we allowed both control and ES offspring to grow up. At 4 months of age, cognitive performance was examined at P120 using object recognition, object location, Morris water maze and T-maze tests. Right now we are processing the brains for analysis of:

- Levels of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (using immunohistochemistry for the established markers Ki67, Doublecortin and BrdU/NeuN)

- Epigenetic modifications (global DNA-methylation levels using colorimetric ELISA assays and gene expression of DNMT’s using quantitative PCR)

The techniques that are used include: Handling mice, slicing perfused brains, immunohistochemistry, (confocal) microscopy, DNA/RNA isolation, RT-qPCR experiments etc.

Supervision:

Eva Naninck, PhD student University of Amsterdam, SILS-CNS, group of Prof. P.J. Lucassen ‘Structural and functional plasticity of the nervous system’

Are you an enthusiastic and highly motivated master student that is interested in learning more about the role of nutri-epigenomics and using these techniques? And are you looking for a diverse internship at our lab at SciencePark Amsterdam? Please send an email to Eva Naninck ([email protected]) for more information.



Institute Psychology

Lab Group Processes/ Conflict and Creativity Lab

Title of Project Neurobiological Bases of Cooperation and Conflict in Humans

Type of Project Experimental Research

Supervisor Prof. Carsten K.W. De Dreu; Dr Mariska Kret

Duration On-going

Start date Between 1 October 2013 and 1 January 2014

End date July 1 2014

Description of Research Project: Students join our on-going research program into the neurobiological bases of human cooperation. We merge literatures from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and social psychology. We use fMRI, TDS, eye-tracking, and neuropeptide (oxytocin) administration to uncover human decision making in incentivized experimental games (e.g., ultimatum bargaining, predator-prey conflict games, coordination games) played between individuals, or between groups of individuals. Students take responsibility for a specific component (e.g., pilot study, measurement facet) and lead and/or assist in the literature development, study design, data collection, and data-analysis. Student projects are completed by a research report in article format. The student’s role in the project: Negotiable; full range from participating in projects led by senior researchers, to doing an independent study under the supervision of senior researchers.

Contact Person Carsten K.W. De Dreu


Website See UvA homepage

Remarks none



Institute University of Amsterdam

Lab Experimental Developmental Psychopathology (combination of developmental & clinical psychology, experimental design of studies)

Title of Project Modifying automatic processes in psychological disorders (anxiety/addiction)

Type of Project -(collaborating in) data collection regarding modification/retraining of different automatic cognitive biases in anxiety and addiction

Supervisor Dr. Elske Salemink

Duration Flexible (first year and second year CSCA students)

Start date Any date

End date

Description of Research Project: Experimental Developmental Psychopathology Dual process models of the aetiology and maintenance of psychopathology posit that psychological disorders (such as anxiety disorders and addiction) are influenced by both controlled and automatic processes. More specifically, it is thought to result from a disturbed balance between automatically triggered processes, including a selective attention for threat or alcohol related cues (Attentional Bias) and automatic approach/avoidance tendencies for alcohol (Approach Bias), and Executive Control processes (EC) which moderate the automatic processes.

Recent developments are to directly modify automatic and more controlled processes which results in reduction in anxiety, depression, alcohol use etc. At the moment we are conducting online trainingstudies (see www.impliciet.eu) and are also collaborating with clinics in the Netherlands and Germany. In addition to examining whether the training works (less psychopathology, less relapse one year later), we are also interested in questions such as: for whom does training work best, what is the optimal dose of training (number of sessions, spacing of sessions), what factors moderate training effectiveness, how can we optimize training (game elements?) etc. The student’s role in the project: The student can be involved in designing a study, formulating hypotheses, helping with practical issues before the start of a study, pilot-testing and helping with the data-collection. For some studies, the data collection is already running, but students can always help with testing participants or helping online participants. For all projects, students can analyze the data.

Contact Person Elske Salemink


Website http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/e.salemink/

Remarks


http://www.impliciet.eu/


Institute Universiteit van Amsterdam

Lab Brain and Cognition

Title of Project Adaptive online brain training after stroke

Type of Project Clinical testing and training

Supervisor R.M. van de Ven (MSc), J. Murre (Prof.), B. schmand (Prof.)

Duration 4 months or more

Start date August 2013

End date June 2015

Description of Research Project: Within the research project “Adaptive online brain training after stroke” we investigate the effect of online cognitive flexibility training on the recovery after stroke. Besides, we examine the relation between training effects and neuronal changes with (f)MRI. In this project, those who survived stroke are trained with an online brain training for a certain time, followed and preceded by tests and MRI measuring the amount of individual improvement. These tests will be administered in the lab, therefore students have to master the Dutch language. The student’s role in the project: Testing people with stroke and healthy elderly pre- and post-training, scoring and processing data, analysis

Contact Person R.M. van de Ven

Contact Information [email protected]; 020 525 6837

Website

Remarks Students have to have a good command of the Dutch language




Institute Child development and education (UvA)

Lab

Title of Project Development of speech ERPs in infants/young children

Type of Project EEG

Supervisor Titia van Zuijen

Duration

Start date

End date

Description of Research Project: In this project we investigate the development of the auditory system of infants/young children by means of ERPs elicited by speech. We have collected ERP data to the speech sound /bAk/ in the same infants from 2 months to 3, 5 years of age every half a year. We are interested in the development of the auditory ERPs over time to gain a better understanding of the maturation of the auditory system. The student’s role in the project: The student is expected to study the literature on the maturation of auditory ERPs (from birth to adulthood) and to analyze the available EEG data. The EEG analyses includes making a wake/sleep stage classification of the infant data. The student then writes a report containing a literature review and the results of the longitudinal analysis.

Contact Person Titia van Zuijen


Website

Remarks A course in EEG experimentation/analysis is highly recommended.




Institute Psychology, University of Amsterdam

Lab Brain and Cognition

Title of Project A Meta-analysis on Affective Priming

Type of Project Literature search and statistical analysis

Supervisor R. Hans Phaf

Duration flexible

Start date flexible

End date flexible

Description of Research Project: The affective priming study with emotional faces by Murphy and Zajonc (1993) has served as a paradigmatic example of a dissociation between conscious and nonconscious processing. As we ourselves have experienced (Rotteveel, de Groot, Geutskens, & Phaf, 2001), it is not at all easy to obtain this pattern of results. Little is known yet about the exact conditions under which the pattern of results can be found. In previous meta-analyses (e.g., Phaf & Kan, 2007; Phaf, Mohr, Rotteveel, & Wicherts, 2014), we have found that much can be learned about these conditions by distinguishing suitable moderator variables. A potential publication bias, which may provide a distorted picture of these effects, can also be detected and corrected for with the Trim-and-Fill method (Duval & Tweedie, 2000). Twenty years after the original findings, also sufficient related studies should be available in the literature to perform such a meta-analysis. References Duval, S.J. & Tweedie, R. (2000). Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for

publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 56, 455-463. Murphy, S.T. & Zajonc, R.B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and

suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 723-739. Phaf, R.H., & Kan, K.-J. (2007). The automaticity of emotional Stroop: A meta-analysis. Journal of Behavior Therapy

and Experimental Psychiatry, 38, 184-199. Phaf, R.H., Mohr, S. E., Rotteveel, M., & Wicherts, J. M. (2014). Approach, avoidance, and affect: a meta-analysis of

approach-avoidance tendencies in manual reaction time tasks. Frontiers in psychology, 5:378. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00378

Rotteveel, M, de Groot, P., Geutskens, A. & Phaf, R.H. (2001). Stronger suboptimal than optimal affective priming? Emotion, 1, 348-364.

The student’s role in the project: Tasks: Collecting experimental articles on affective priming (in collaboration with the supervisor) and setting up the meta-analysis. Requirements: The project requires a sharp insight in the possibilities and limitations of experimental research in order to be able to collect suitable experimental articles for the meta-analysis. Also an outstanding knowledge of meta-analytic methodology is required.


Contact Person R. Hans Phaf

Contact Information

[email protected], room: 3.13 Diamantbeurs, tel: 020 5256841

Website

Remarks



Institute: Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

Lab: Cognition and Plasticity Laboratory

Title of Project: To be determined

Type of Project: Cognitieve Neuroscience. See Description.

Supervisor: Dr. Heleen Slagter/Lotte Talsma/Marlies Vissers/Leon Reteig

Duration: 6-9 months

Start date: To be determined

End date: To be determined


The research conducted in the Cognition and Plasticity Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam focuses on (the neural basis of) core cognitive capacities, such as selective attention, and ways to optimize cognitive performance. What are the mechanisms that allow us to perceive, select, suppress, and become aware of information in the environment? Can these mechanisms that adaptively control information processing be enhanced through e.g., training or with brain stimulation? The vision is to understand the (brain) processes that allow people to excel at certain behaviors, and how these processes may be facilitated. Keywords: attention, working memory, brain. Key methods: behavior, EEG, MRI, MRS, tDCS. For more details: https://sites.google.com/site/slagterheleen/ At any given time, there are multiple research projects in the planning/running in our lab, so please inquire via email about possible research projecs. Please include your motivation for doing your project in our lab, your CV and grade list.

The student’s role in the project: The student would help with study set up (programming task), data collection (recruiting and

running subjects) and analysis of behavioral and EEG data, writing of a report and possibly co-authorship on a resulting article, presenting the data as a poster on a local conference

Contact Person: Dr. Heleen Slagter


Website: https://sites.google.com/site/slagterheleen/


https://sites.google.com/site/slagterheleen/

https://sites.google.com/site/slagterheleen/


Institute: Universiteit van Amsterdam

Lab: http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.e.kret/

Title of Project: Perception of emotional body language in the bonobo

Type of Project: Psychological experiment with bonobos as participants in “de Apenheul”

Supervisor: Mariska Kret

Duration: 6 months (but flexible)

Start date: Flexible but testing will be in November, December, January

End date: Flexible

Description of Research Project: The project aims to investigate the perception of emotional body language in the bonobo. The task is an emotional dot probe task where emotional stimuli are presented on a touch-screen. For example, this is Ai (a chimpanzee), who was my previous participant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1jvfq41tVI. If all goes well, it might be possible that we can run another task. This is the first touch-screen project in de Apenheul and I am really excited with this great opportunity. In this project, the student will learn how animals are trained on simple computer tasks. The student’s role in the project: For this large project, I am looking for a Dutch-speaking student who can work independently, who is stress-resistant, patient, flexible, creative and who loves animals. The student should be social and be able to communicate with the animal caretakers, visitors and bonobos! Also, the student should be a bit flexible in terms of the exact tasks and also help the caregivers wherever he/she can. Ideally, the student should move to Apeldoorn during the winter months. If you are interested, please send me an email.

Contact Person: Mariska Kret


Website: http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.e.kret/

Remarks:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1jvfq41tVI




Title of Project: Neural underpinnings of pupil-synchronization

Type of Project: fMRI



Start date: Flexible

End date: Flexible

Description of Research Project: The project aims to investigate the neural underpinnings of pupil synchronization and its putative link to trust. The data from this fMRI project (that also includes eye-tracking and other psychophysiological measures) have already been collected. For a similar project, see: Kret ME, Tomonaga M, Matsuzawa T (2014) Chimpanzees and Humans Mimic Pupil-Size of Conspecifics, in: PLOS ONE 9(8): e104886. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104886. The student’s role in the project: For this large project, I am looking for students with great affinity and at least some experience in the analysis of fMRI data. The student should have an interest in synchronization processes such as facial mimicry, pupillometry and/or social decisions. If you are interested, please send me an email.




Remarks:




Title of Project: Physiological underpinnings of pupil-synchronization

Type of Project: Skin conductance, heart-rate, breathing pattern




End date: Flexible

Description of Research Project: The project aims to investigate the (neural) physiological underpinnings of pupil synchronization and its putative link to trust. The data from this eye-tracking/fMRI project also includes skin conductance and heart-rate measures. Data have already been collected. For a similar project, see: Kret ME, Tomonaga M, Matsuzawa T (2014) Chimpanzees and Humans Mimic Pupil-Size of Conspecifics, in: PLOS ONE 9(8): e104886. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104886. The student’s role in the project: For this large project, I am looking for students with at least some experience in the analysis of psychophysiological data. The student should have an interest in synchronization processes such as facial mimicry, pupillometry and/or social decisions. If you are interested, please send me an email.




Remarks:


Institute: Muenster University and Universiteit van Amsterdam


Title of Project: Emotion perception in anxiety and depression

Type of Project:

Supervisor: Mariska Kret and Katja Koelkebeck



End date: Flexible

Description of Research Project: The project aims to investigate the perception of emotion in different patient groups. The student’s role in the project: The student should be fluent in German and work directly with patients.




Remarks:



Lab Developmental Psychology

Title of Project Pharmacological treatment of alcohol addiction with baclofen – fMRI study

Type of Project

Supervisor Esther Beraha (Promotor: Reinout Wiers)

Duration (+-) 6 month

Start date September 2014

End date March 2015

Description of Research Project: In this research project the efficiency of a new medicine, Baclofen, for the treatment of alcohol addiction is investigated. In a side study the effect of Baclofen on cognitive processes playing a role in addiction is examined with fMRI. The study is conducted in a treatment center. The student’s role in the project: Students will answer their research question by collecting and analyzing data. Furthermore, students will present their results in a scientific report. In this project students get insight in cognitive processes playing a role in addiction. Furthermore, they will be able to gather first experiences with fMRI analysis. Additionally, they get the possibility to conduct their research in a clinical setting with patients.

Contact Person Esther Beraha


Website

Remarks



Institute: Amsterdam Brain and Cognition

Lab: UvA Babylab

Title of Project: Infant speech category learning

Type of Project: Thesis project

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Maartje Raijmakers, Dr. Pralle Kriengwatana

Duration: 8 months

Start date: September 2014

End date: April 2015

Description of Research Project: Learning a language is no easy task, yet infants can do it with only a limited set of abilities. How do they do this? This project will investigate individual learning strategies that infants use to learn new speech sound categories and whether this strategy changes when new cognitive resources become available to infants.

The aim of this project is to first develop an eye-tracking task that accurately captures the category learning abilities of 4- to 10-month-old infants. Infants and their parents will visit the UvA Language lab where infants’ gaze patterns will be recorded with an eye-tracking device while they listen to speech sounds that are synchronized with visual displays. Eye movements to a particular location on the screen when a different speech sound category is played will be used as a measure of learning.

Researchers are continuously searching for ways to test how infants learn about their world. The outcome of this project will greatly benefit the field of infant research by providing a method to assess how infants as young as 4 months learn to crack the speech code.

The student’s role in the project: Students are expected to learn to use the eye-tracker, to collect data by running experiments independently, to recruit infants and schedule lab visits with parents, and to analyze and perform statistical analyses on the eye-tracking data. Students are also expected to meet regularly with supervisors to discuss their progress, ideas for improving the task or alternative experimental designs, and future experiments.

Training and supervision will be in English, and students are expected to write their thesis in English.

Contact Person: Pralle Kriengwatana


Website:

Remarks:



Institute: University of Amsterdam

Lab: Addiction Development and Psychopathology Lab (ADAPT lab)

Title of Project: TDCS, Cognitive Training and Addiction

Type of Project: Research Project

Supervisor: Tess den Uyl, Reinout Wiers

Duration: Variable

Start date: ±January 2015

End date: Variable

Description of Research Project: Cognitive training (e.g. with an adapted approach avoidance task or dot probe task) has been found to be a

beneficial additive treatment for alcohol addiction. This project focuses on the question whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve such trainings. TDCS is a technique with which a small electrical current can be sent through the cortex, this influences neuronal polarization and can increase plasticity; and thus can possibly enhance learning effects. In this study we want to investigate whether a combination of tDCS and attentional re-training can have beneficial effects in treatment outcome in alcoholic patients. We want to see if these combined effects may surpass the effects of the training or tDCS on its own. This specific study is done with a population of addicted patients in an inpatient clinic in Germany (Lindow, close to Berlin).

The student’s role in the project: The student will stay in Germany at the clinic for approximately 2-3 months. Some proficiency in German is

preferred. The student will be responsible for the complete experiment in the clinic and will be administering tDCS. We may also include physiological measurements. The student will analyze the data and write a research report.

Contact Person: Tess den Uyl


Website:

Remarks:





Lab Clinical/Forensic Psychology

Title of Project Explicit and implicit memory in the Concealed Information Test (CIT): Can we detect knowledge of a crime which the suspect himself does not explicitly remember?

Type of Project Master thesis / Internship

Supervisor Bruno Verschuere

Duration Min 2 months

Start date 01/3/2015

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: The Concealed Information Test (CIT) holds that when guilty individuals recognize crime-relevant information, they will show physiological evidence of this recognition. An important question that remains is whether the physiological measures used in a CIT paradigm are sensitive to implicit memory. Can we detect knowledge of a crime which the suspect himself does not explicitly remember? There is some supporting evidence of clinical applications of the CIT. For instance, Bauer (1984) indexed spared electrodermal discrimination in a patient who was unable to spontaneously identify faces (i.e., prosopagnosia). Moreover, using a classic CIT design, a profoundly amnesic patient (suffering from brain-injury) showed discriminative electrodermal responses to items that he could not explicitly recall or recognize (Verfeallie, Bauer & Bowers, 1991). There is however a lack of systematic research investigating if overtly forgotten information can still induce enhanced physiological responses. The present research project will be the first of its kind to examine this highly exciting research topic! The student’s role in the project: Learn about the CIT; learn about psychophysiological measurements; conduct an experimental study with psychophysiological measures; write a scientific report

Contact Person Bruno Verschuere Nathalie klein Selle

Contact Information

[email protected] [email protected]

Website http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/b.j.verschuere/

Remarks Memory detection research is fun!



http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/b.j.verschuere/



Lab Clinical Psychology

Title of Project The manipulation of truth proportion: Can one become as good in lying as in truth telling?



Duration Flexible, yet preferably min 6 months

Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: Brain imaging studies suggest that truth telling constitutes the default of the human brain (Spence et al., 2004, 2008). A long standing question is whether the truth is always the dominant response or whether deception may constitute the default in habitual or pathological liars (Dike, Baranoski, & Griffith, 2005). We recently showed (Verschuere et al., 2011; Van Bockstaele et al, submitted) that frequent lying made lying easier while frequent truth telling made lying more difficult. In the present thesis/internship we examine to what extent truth proportion effects generalize (for reviews see Green & Bavelier, 2008; Hertel, 2011).) and hold outside the laboratory, and which factors moderate generalization (e.g., length of practice, sleep)? The student’s role in the project: Active role in developing design Conduct experimental studies (typically more than 1) Statistical analyses (SPSS; typically (M)AN(C)OVA) Write scientific report with the goal of submission to peer-reviewed scientific journal In sum, master all skills required to start an academic carreer

Contact Person Bruno Verschuere

Contact Informati

on [email protected]

Website http://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/content/v/e/b.j.verschuere/b.j.verschuere.html

Remarks Lie detection research is fun!


http://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/content/v/e/b.j.verschuere/b.j.verschuere.html






Title of Project Psychopathy: Anxiety or Attention deficit?




Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: Psychopathy is an important clinical and forensic construct as it reliably predicts violence, criminal recidivism, and poor treatment outcome; yet its aetiology is not well understood. Highly influential is the low-fear hypothesis (LFH; Lykken, 1995; for a review see the Handbook of Psychopathy by Patrick, 2006), that poor socialization in psychopathy results from innate lack of fear for punishment. Recent data, however, by the lab of Joe Newman indicate that fear capacity may be intact, but that psychopathy is characterized by lack of attention to emotion as stated in the response modulation hypothesis (RMH; Patterson & Newman, 1993). Putting this hypothesis to the test, we will examine the emotion-attention interaction in psychopathic individuals, and manipulate attention in those paradigms that produced the most compelling evidence for the low-fear hypothesis. The student’s role in the project: Active role in developing design Conduct experimental studies (typically more than 1) Statistical analyses (SPSS; typically (M)AN(C)OVA) Write scientific report with the goal of submission to peer-reviewed scientific journal In sum, master all skills required to start an academic carreer


Contact Informati



Remarks Psychopathy research is exciting!








Title of Project Predicting lie detection success




Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: Current lie detection devices all take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Practitioners have their preferred test, and use it on all occasions for all examinees. This seems odd, as different tests are based upon entirely different logic and psychology, ranging from emotion-based tests relying on anxiety and stress to cognition-based tests relying on attention, inhibition or recognition memory. Leaving the ‘one size fits all’ approach, it may be beneficial to assess how likely it is that a test will work before drawing conclusions from the output of the test. That is, interpretation of the test results can benefit from an assessment of the potential of the test. After all, if an independent assessment shows that the test is unlikely to work for that individual, it may be better not too put too much weight on the test outcome. In the current project, we will develop a built-in control for a relatively new lie detection test: The autobiographical Implicit Association Test or aIAT (Sartori et al., 2008; Verschuere et al,. 2009; Agosta et al., 2011). References

Agosta, S., Mega, A., & Sartori, G. (2011). Detrimental effects of using negative sentences in the autobiographical IAT. Acta Psychologica, 136(3), 269-275. doi: DOI 10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.05.011

Sartori, G., Agosta, S., Zogmaister, C., Ferrara, S. D., & Castiello, U. (2008). How to accurately detect autobiographical events. Psychological Science, 19(8), 772-780. doi: DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02156.x

Verschuere, B., Prati, V., & De Houwer, J. (2009). Cheating the lie detector: Faking in the autobiographical IAT. Psychological Science, 20, 410-413. The student’s role in the project: Active role in developing design Conduct experimental studies (typically more than 1) Statistical analyses (SPSS; typically (M)AN(C)OVA) Write scientific report with the goal of submission to peer-reviewed scientific journal In sum, master all skills required to start an academic carreer




Title of Project Predicting online memory detection success




Start date Flexible

End date Flexible


The Memory Detection Test assesses recognition of critical information, for example, the weapon used in a murder case or the name of the leader of a terrorist network. The test looks much like a multiple choice examination, consisting of several questions, each having several answer alternatives; e.g., ’’Was the murder weapon…a knife?...an axe?...a gun?...a rope?...a stick?’’. Test construction assures that all alternatives are equally plausible and that the answer is known only to the culprit. The innocent does not recognize the critical items and will therefore show similar responses to all answer alternatives. The culprit, however, will recognize the critical item, and react to it. While specificity is great, the sensitivity of memory detection can be improved. We have proposed to try and objectively predict the sensitivity of memory detection (Matsuda et al., 2014; Noordraven and Verschuere 2013). We noted that this research requires larger sample sizes than those typically collected in the lab, and we will therefore move from the lab to the web, using an online version of the memory detection test which allows for rapid collection of large sample (n > 1000)

References Noordraven., E., & Verschuere, B. (2013). Predicting the sensitivity of the

Reaction Time-based Concealed Information Test. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27, 328-335.

Matsuda, I., Ogawa, T., Tsuneoka, M. & Verschuere, B. (2014). Using pretest data to screen low-reactivity individuals in the autonomic-based concealed information test. Psychophysiology.

Verschuere, B., Crombez, G., Degrootte, T. & Rosseel, Y. (2010). Detecting concealed information with reaction times: Validity and comparison with the polygraph. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 991-1002.

Verschuere, B., Ben-Shakhar, G., & Meijer, E. (2011). Memory detection: Theory and application of the concealed information test. Cambridge University press.

The student’s role in the project: Active role in developing design

Conduct experimental studies (typically more than 1) Online test is programmed in Javascript – experience with Javascript is a great plus Statistical analyses (SPSS; typically (M)AN(C)OVA) Write scientific report with the goal of submission to peer-reviewed scientific journal In sum, master all skills required to start an academic carreer


Contact Informati



Remarks Lie detection research is fun!





Evin Aktar ([email protected]) Institute: University of Amsterdam, ABC Lab: Amsterdam BabyLab Title: Infants’ Processing of Emotion as a function of Infant Temperament, and Parental Depression/Anxiety Background: Infants’ ability to understand emotions from faces develop in the first year as a result of experiences with faces in their environment. Considering the prominent presence of parents in infants’ environment at this period, how much parents express certain emotions in daily life may influence how infants respond to these emotions. Previous literature has shown infants of depressed mothers are less sensitive to negative faces. In the present project, we aim to investigate 14 to 16-month-old infants’ early processing of facial expressions of emotions via eye-trackers and investigate the effect of parents’ expressions of emotions on infants’ pupil responses to emotions. Aims of the study: In this project, we measure infants’ pupil responses to positive and negative facial expressions of emotion. Infants’ pupil diameters are recorded with an eye-tracking device at the UvA Language Lab in the presence of a parent. The project consists of 2 experiments: In the first experiment, infants’ and parents’ pupil responses are measured in response to emotional and neutral facial expressions. In the second experiment, change in infants’ pupil responses to unfamiliar stimuli is measured before and after the stimuli being paired with facial expressions with gaze information (towards/away). Emotion effects are investigated, together with parents’ depression/anxiety, and infants’ temperament (measured via questionnaires). Tasks: The students are expected: (1) to participate in the trainings on how to use the eye-tracker and how to analyze data from the eye-tracker, (2) to participate in ongoing measurements of the project (3) to work on the practical organization of the project, like recruitment of infants or scheduling lab visits with the parents (4) to analyze the results from the eye-tracker and finally (5) write their thesis. Students are provided with the flexibility to choose their specific topic of interest for their thesis based on the existing dataset. Start date: September 2014 Supervisors: Maartje Raijmakers (UvA), Evin Aktar (UvA) Contact/information: [email protected] Remarks: The trainings and the supervision will be offered in English, and we expect students to write their thesis in English.


Available Research Projects for Biomedical Master Students

Institute Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences – Center for Neuroscience

Lab Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience (Pennartz group)

Title of Project Audiovisual Integration in Rat Neocortex

Type of Project Research internship

Supervisor Drs. Paul Mertens, Dr. Carien Lansink

Duration 6-9 months full time

Start date Open for internships from January ‘15

End date

Description of Research Project: How and where are audio and vision integrated in the brain, to produce a unified, audiovisual percept? And how does the brain determine which sounds and visual events belong together, and which belong to separate sources? In this project, we try to answer these questions by making electrophysiological recordings in freely behaving rats, while they perform a task involving perceptual decisions and memory. Specifically, on our setup (a computer controlled figure-8 maze) rats will repeatedly be presented simple auditory and visual stimuli of several hundred milliseconds (a pure tone and a moving grating); these stimuli either occur exactly simultaneously, or with a substantial asynchrony. If they occur simultaneously, a reward can be collected in the left arm of the maze; if they occur out of synch, then a reward can be collected in the right arm. After an animal learns this task, we implant him with a so-called ‘hyperdrive’; an array which houses 32 tetrodes which can be lowered individually to record extracellular potentials from neurons in several brain areas simultaneously. At the moment of recording, the rat is performing the behavioral task or sleeping. Recording from several areas simultaneously allows us to study both activity within single areas as well as interactions between these areas. The student’s role in the project: Your role will change depending on the experimental phase of the project. We can only record from one animal at any given moment, and we only implant an animal once it has learned the behavioral task, which typically takes several weeks. So in order to gain experience with the different aspects of the project we really encourage you to come in for a project of at least 6 months or more. Your work will include training the animals and assisting with recordings. You will help program parts of the task and the stimuli in Matlab and the Psychtoolbox add-on. You can assist in building the hyperdrives. You can also gain some experience in processing and analysing data. If you have particular interests you want to emphasize, don’t hesitate to let me know. So mainly what you will gain from the project will be experience in working with animals and electrophysiological recordings, gain experience in Matlab coding; and importantly, you will learn to think in terms of behavioral paradigms and how to relate these to hard neural data. You will be doing this in a lab with truly state of the art facilities, an experienced support staff and a very interactive research cohort of PhD students and postdocs. And of course there’ll be numerous other interns pursuing similar interests as yourself.


Contact Person Carien Lansink


Website http://sils.uva.nl/research/research-programmes/content/cognitive-and-systems-neuroscience/cognitive-and-systems-neuroscience.html

Remarks

If you would like to apply please send a - Short movivation - CV - Course and gradelists from your studies up until the moment of

application.


Institute Center for Neuroscience, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences

Lab Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience

Title of Project The neuronal mechanisms of multi-sensory integration in the mouse neocortex

Type of Project Behavioral training and two-photon calcium imaging

Supervisor Guido Meijer, Carien Lansink

Duration ~ 6 - 9 months full time

Start date Open for internships from January 2014

End date

Description of Research Project: This research projects aims to investigate how the sensory areas of the cortex integrate neuronal information originating from different senses into the formation of a single percept. Mice will be trained to respond to a stimulus which consists of multiple modalities (vision and sound). During this learning process the neuronal responses from the cortical sensory areas which are thought to perform this integration of information will be measured using two-photon calcium imaging. This technique allows for a large number of neurons to be imaged simultaneously, making it possible to scrutinize the dynamics of the local neuronal population. The student’s role in the project: To teach animals how to perform the behavioral task they need to be trained daily. We have four fully automated parallel training set-ups in which four mice can be trained simultaneously. After a period of supervised learning you will be able to independently operate these set-ups. Next to behavioral training you will be involved in the two-photon calcium imaging. You will learn how a two-photon scanner works and how to operate one. You will also be involved in the processing and analysis of the data. This will be done in the programming language MATLAB so any experience in that regard is a plus.

Contact Person Carien Lansink


Website http://sils.uva.nl/research/research-programmes/content/cognitive-and-systems-neuroscience/research-lines/integration-of-multisensory-information-in-perception-and-memory.html

Remarks

If you would like to apply please send a - Short movivation - CV - Course and gradelists from your studies up until the moment of

application.



Institute: UvA, Dept Psychology

Lab: Brain & Cognition

Title of Project: Synesthesia and Cognitive Control

Type of Project: human behavior

Supervisor: Romke Rouw, & Richard Ridderinkhof

Duration: between 5 and 10 months

Start date: between Oct 1st and Jan 1st

End date: -


For grapheme-color synesthetes, a letter or number evokes a synesthetic color in addition to its ‘real’ (typeface) color. This implies that two different color experiences (real and synesthetic) are simultaneously present for one single stimulus. In the current study, we investigate the processes involved when these two color experiences conflict with one another. To this end, different conflict tasks are designed to introduce stimulus conflict (i.e., induced by stimulus selection processes) and response conflict (i.e., induced by response competition processes). Examples are so-called 4:2 mapping paradigm to existing (Stroop) and new (Flanker) synesthetic conflict tasks. Additionally, we compare such synesthetic conflict with stimulus and response conflict as caused by regular perception in non-synesthetic controls. There is a possibility to extend the project and include rTMS, where the role of particular frontal regions in this type of control is examined.

The student’s role in the project: Design, setup, and program the experiments. Discuss experimental setup and theoretical background. Run

experiments (test subjects) and perform data-analyses. Write report. A pro-active, results-driven attitude is expected. An interest in synesthesia is a pre, good insights and high motivation for doing top-quality research is a necessity.

Contact Person: Romke Rouw


Website:

Remarks:



Institute: Psychology

Lab: Cognitive development lab

Title of Project: Development of learning

Type of Project: Modeling and data analyses

Supervisor: Ingmar Visser

Duration: Flexible


End date: Flexible


My research interests center on the development of learning, implicit learning, explicit learning, and their interaction during development. Current open projects are: 1) Developing dual systems models of category learning 2) Detecting stagewise development in the balance scale and the conservation of liquid task 3) Diffusion model analysis of implicit learning data

Van der Maas, H. L., & Molenaar, P. C. (1992). Stagewise cognitive development: an application of catastrophe theory. Psychological review, 99(3), 395. Jansen, B. R., & Van der Maas, H. L. (2001). Evidence for the phase transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task. Developmental Review, 21(4), 450-494. Brown, S. D., & Heathcote, A. (2008). The simplest complete model of choice response time: Linear ballistic accumulation. Cognitive psychology, 57(3), 153-178.

The student’s role in the project: 1) Applying dual systems models to analyze existing developmental data of category learning 2) Analysis of existing data to detect stagewise development 3) Analysis of existing implicit learning data

Contact Person: Ingmar Visser


Website: ingmar.org

Remarks:



Institute: Department of brain & Cognition, FMG Psychology

Lab: Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab

Title of Project: From image statistics to object perception

Type of Project: Intern or Master

Supervisor: Dr. H.Steven Scholte

Duration: To be discussed

Start date: To be discussed

End date: To be discussed


Some areas of the visual cortex, for instance V1 or V4, are believed to respond to low-level features such as lines and shapes. Other areas respond stronger to for instance faces and houses. In this project you will use image statistics of scenes to differentiate between responses to image statistics on the one hand, and responses to image content on the other. You will generate a data set that consists of natural scenes that contain faces, scenes or objects. These will be selected in such a way that each category of stimuli spans the entire range of low-level image properties. For instance, some of the natural images that contain faces will be relatively structured while other face stimuli will be chaotic. These stimuli will be presented to subjects while BOLD-MRI is recorded. Because the stimulus set will contain a vector related to scene content and an independent vector related to scene statistics it should be possible to differentiate between these two processes.

The student’s role in the project: The project will consist of making the paradigm, recording the data, analyzing the data and reporting on the data. The focus of the project will be on data analysis and you will use matlab / python extensively. Extending the research with for instance EEG or using population receptive field mapping analysis changes this internship into a thesis project.

Contact Person: H.Steven Scholte


Website: http://www.cognitiveneuroscience.nl/

Remarks:



Institute: Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam Lab: Cognition and Plasticity Laboratory Title of Project: Using SSVEPs to assess the role of attention in visuo-spatial short-term memory. Type of Project: EEG study on attention and short-term memory using SSVEPs and time-frequency analysis of EEG-data. Supervisor: Marlies Vissers, Dr. Heleen Slagter Duration: 5-9 months (dependent on the students’ availability) Start date: Between November 2014 - January 2015 End date: End of academic year (approximately)


In this project we will use steady state evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to examine the mechanisms involved in retention of goal-relevant information in a short-term memory task. SSVEPs can be generated by presentation of rhythmically flickering visual stimuli: this results in neural responses to these stimuli of the same frequency as the flicker frequency of each stimulus. This technique is particularly useful to study attention related processing, since it allows tracking of processing of individual stimuli by tagging them with distinct frequencies. We will use this technique to assess attentional distribution over to be remembered items during a short-term memory task. This study will contribute to current knowledge about the cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in short-term memory, and individual differences herein.


The student will be trained in EEG-data collection. Afterwards, the student will help in subject recruitment, testing, and data-analysis (behavior, and SSVEP as well as time-frequency analysis of EEG data). Since we will work with EEG and SSVEPs, basic experience with signal analysis and programming in Matlab (or a strong interest to acquire such experience) will be preferred. The student will formulate an appropriate research question to investigate with our design, and will present and discuss the results in a report and oral presentation at the end of the project. Please contact me if you are interested and would like to learn more about this project [email protected].


NIN

11


Institute Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN-KNAW)

Lab Vision and Cognition Group

Title of Project Perceptual grouping

Type of Project Research; Psychophysics and/or Neuroimaging

Supervisor Danique Jeurissen

Duration Flexible

Start date Flexible

End date Flexible


The student will investigate the (serial) perceptual grouping process in the human brain and the role of attention in perceptual grouping. Experiments will also aim to identify the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual grouping and object recognition. Research techniques include psychophysics, eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI, etc.


Depending on the student's interest and duration of the internship, the student will be involved in a visual perception experiment which involves: task design, testing participants, and data analysis.

The student also participates in weekly group discussions and lab meetings.

Contact Person Danique Jeurissen

ContactInformation [email protected]

Website http://www.nin.knaw.nl/research_groups/roelfsema_group

Remarks -



Institute: Nederlands Herseninstituut

Lab: Sleep and Cognition (Van Someren Group)

Title of Project: An integrated approach to sleep improvement

Type of Project: Clinical Trial

Supervisor: Eus van Someren

Duration: 6 months or more

Start date: Sept 2014

End date: …

Description of Research Project: This project is part of a large randomized clinical trial that aims to evaluate the efficacy of several

chronobiological treatments (light therapy, thermoregulatory therapy and exercise) and cognitive behavioral therapy for subtypes of insomnia.

Therapeutic efficacy is measured using sleep diaries and sleep actigraphy, as well as several additional questionnaires.

Data are analysed using multilevel analysis. The student’s role in the project: The student will assist in data acquiring through internet and with ambulatory devices. The student will screen participants and answer questions before and during assessment periods. The student will check, clean, pre-process and analyse data acquired through questionnaires and

actigraphy.

Contact Person: Kim Dekker


Website: http://www.slaapencognitie.nl/akg/index.html

Remarks:




Institute Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN), Amsterdam Lab Neuromodulation and Behavior

Title of Project Compulsivity and deep-brain stimulation (DBS) Type of Project Behavioral and neurobiological measurements in rodents

Supervisor Ingo Willuhn, PhD; Principal Investigator: Prof. Damiaan Denys Duration At least 5 months, preferably longer

Start date Applications can be send in year-round End date Depending on variable start date and duration

Description of Research Project: The research in our group, headed by Ingo Willuhn, engages in studying the neurobiological basis of compulsive behaviour using animal models. To answer these questions, we investigate different aspects of compulsive behavior (i.e., habit formation, response inflexibility, loss of voluntary control, and aggravation by stress and anxiety) and measure neuronal activity in the brain simultaneously. In addition, we investigate the neurobiological mechanisms of the therapeutic effects of deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in psychiatric disorders.

The group is embedded in the greater research team of Professor Damiaan Denys (chair of AMC Psychiatry) and therefore has close ties with clinicians and clinical researchers, providing optimal conditions for a translational and multidisciplinary approach. Specifically, we translate clinical findings into relevant animal models such as for addiction or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and vice versa we aim to apply the conclusions from our basic science findings in the clinical setting. Our research tools include methods for intracerebral stimulation (e.g., DBS, optogenetics, chemogenetics) in freely moving rodents, in combination with tests for emotional and cognitive behavior (in set-ups such as elevated plus maze and operant chambers), neurochemical measurements (e.g., microdialysis, fast-scan cyclic voltammetry), and electrophysiological recordings (single-unit activity and local field potentials (LFPs)). Furthermore, we also use pharmacological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI and fMRI) in rodents to detect the effects of drugs, DBS, and optical stimulation throughout the brain. The student will be involved in one of the following projects depending on preference and availability: 1. Coordination of dopamine release in the striatum during habit formation and compulsive behavior. 2. The role of dopamine in flexible behavior and in the effects of neuromodulation in cortico-striatal circuits. 3. Perturbation of functional brain connectivity in a rat model of OCD and identification of new DBS targets. 4. The role of stress in behavioral and genetic models of compulsive behavior. 5. DBS-evoked modulation of global neural activity and reward-driven behavior. 6. Effects of DBS and developmental drug exposure on functional connectivity in rat brain circuits. The student’s role in the project: The student will assist the research team in conducting behavioral experiments with rodents. The student will read relevant background literature, attend lab meetings and journal clubs, formulate a research questions and hypotheses, collect data, analyze collected data, write a report, and give a presentation on a research question.

Contact Person Ingo Willuhn Contact Information [email protected]

Website http://www.nin.knaw.nl/research_groups/denys_group Remarks


VUmc

46


Institute: onderzoeksafdeling Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie VUmc

Title of Project: Neurobiology and Treatment of Adolescent Female Conduct Disorder: TheCentral Role of Emotion Processing.

Type of Project: Onderzoeksstage of scriptieplek

Supervisor: Drs. Helena Oldenhof

Duration: 6 maanden

Start date: Gehele jaar


Het meeste onderzoek naar antisociaal gedrag heeft zich gericht op jongens/mannen waardoor we eigenlijk maar weinig weten over de toenemende groep meisjes die dit gedrag vertoont. Vanuit het VUmc wordt wetenschappelijk onderzoek uitgevoerd naar meisjes met een gedragsstoornis (Conduct Disorder, CD). Dit onderzoek is onderdeel van een Europees project, FemNAT-CD, waarbij in verschillende Europese landen meisjes met een gedragsstoornis worden onderzocht. Het onderzoek richt zich op neurobiologische en psychologische factoren bij meisjes tussen de 9 en 18 jaar. Met dit onderzoek pogen we beter inzicht te krijgen in de problematiek van deze doelgroep zodat specifieke interventies aangeboden kunnen worden. Voor dit onderzoek zijn wij op zoek naar Nederlandstalige studenten die ons onderzoeksteam willen ondersteunen. Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd binnen verschillende Jeugdzorg Plus instellingen: De Koppeling in Amsterdam en Horzion in Sassenheim en Rotterdam en reguliere basis- en middelbare scholen.

The student’s role in the project: Als student zal je de verantwoordelijkheid krijgen om de dataverzameling binnen deze instellingen en scholen goed te laten verlopen. Dit houdt in dat je kinderen/jongeren en hun ouders benadert voor deelname aan het onderzoek, uitleg geeft over het doel en belang van het onderzoek, testafnames doet (vragenlijsten, neuropsychologische taken, neurobiologische metingen (ANS en hormoonbepalingen)) en de verkregen data verwerkt, voortgangsrapportages opstelt en contact onderhoudt met de medewerkers van de instelling/school. Dit gebeurt onder begeleiding van de hoofdonderzoeker.

Contact Person: Helena Oldenhof

Contact Information: [email protected] / 020 890 13 53




Institute: VUmc Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Lab: -

Title of Project: Neurobiology and Treatment of Female Adolescent Conduct Disorder: The Central Role of Emotion Processing.

Type of Project: PhD research project

Supervisor: Msc. H. Oldenhof and Dr. L. Nauta-Jansen

Duration: At least 6 months

Start date: All trough the year

End date:

Description of Research Project: CD is one of the most common reasons for referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and one

of the major reasons for school dropout. It has a high negative impact on the affected individual as well as their families, teachers, and society. Although the number of females exhibiting serious aggressive behaviours is growing, the majority of studies on biomarkers, neurocognitive phenotypes, and therapeutic treatment of CD have focused on male subjects only, despite strong evidence for a differential etiology and neurobiology of female CD (Berkout, et al., 2011). As a consequence, female CD remains a highly neglected research area resulting in a significant gap of knowledge on neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of the disorder in females leading to an absence of sex-specific targets for prevention and intervention.

This study focuses on peadiatric Conduct Disorder (CD) in females during late childhood and adolescence

by, first, a cross-sectional and, second, a longitudinal approach. It aims at studying the phenotypic subgroups, their underlying neurobiological and neurocognitive mechanisms leading to pathological aggression in females compared to males, the longitudinal course of CD in females from pre-puberty to puberty, and to apply a new psychotherapeutic approach in adolescent females withing a randomized controlled trial.

The student’s role in the project: The study will be conducted in closed youth care institutions (‘De Koppeling’, ‘De Vaart’, ‘Bergse Bos’),

where adolescents are placed by means of civil law. The student will participate in different aspects of the research project, with the main focus on the extensive test battery including ANS measurements. Furthermore, the student is involved in: contacting parents or legal guardian to inform them about the aims and procedure of the study, gathering different questionnaires, as well as processing the data that is collected. The student is expected to handle all information with care and confidentiality. There will be the opportunity to work on a thesis within the lines of the current project.

We are looking for students with great social skills and a proactive attitude.


Contact Person: Helena Oldenhof


Website: http://www.capvumca.nl/ http://www.dekoppeling.com/ http://horizon.eu/de-vaart/

Remarks:


http://www.capvumca.nl/

http://www.dekoppeling.com/

http://horizon.eu/de-vaart/


Institute Military Mental Healthcare, Utrecht University Medical Center

Lab Research centre, Psychiatry department

Title of Project Neurobiology of mental health problems in military personnel.

Type of Project Neurobiological projects on stress, trauma and mental health problems in military personnel.

Supervisor dr. Elbert Geuze

Duration 6 - 9 months

Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: Exposure to severe stress and trauma can induce psychiatric disorders as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and problems such as aggression. Military personnel have an increased risk of developing stress-related disorders after deployment. For instance, we demonstrated that the prevalence of PTSD symptoms and hostility was doubled after deployment. Therefore, military deployment can provide a unique context to assess the relation between neurobiology and psychological stress. Unraveling alterations in neurobiological systems in patients with deployment-related mental health problems contributes to the identification of biological vulnerability factors for the development of stress-related mental health problems and the response to treatment. We have large datasets of veterans with psychiatric symptoms (PTSD or aggression) and healthy veterans. The main focus of these studies is on MRI; structural and functional MRI, resting state MRI and DTI. These studies also include clinical assessments, questionnaires, blood draws and neuropsychological tasks to get a complete picture of the disorder. We also have a longitudinal study in which military personnel is followed over time; starting prior to deployment and following the same cohort up to 5 years after homecoming. This study includes neuroendocrinological data and questionnaires. This internship will take place at the Research Centre of Military Mental Healthcare in the UMC Utrecht. The student’s role in the project: If you are interested in the neurobiological alterations in, for instance PTSD or aggression, you are encouraged to apply for a 6 or 9-month internship. We have a young, enthusiastic team of researchers and frequently employ students from Neuroscience. During your internship you will work on your own thesis.

Contact Person Alieke Reijnen

Contact Information

UMC Utrecht. Heidelberglaan 100, 3584CX Utrecht 030-250 2587; [email protected]

Website Not available

Remarks

javascript:void(0);

Other Institutions

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Institute Department of Economics

Lab Social and Neural Systems Lab

Title of Project Neural basis of social and moral decision-making and learning

Type of Project Cognitive Neuroscience

Supervisor Prof. Philippe Tobler

Duration 21-31 weeks (project 1) or >31 weeks (project 2)

Start date Flexible

End date Flexible

Description of Research Project: It is relatively well-known how individuals learn and make decisions about valuable options, both from a theoretical and an empirical (neuroscientific) point of view. However, comparably less is known about social learning and decision making even though learning and decision making occur rarely in a social vacuum. The current project aims to extend notions developed for the individual case into the social and moral domain. The project involves behavioral and functional neuroimaging methods.

The student’s role in the project: Program and run behavioral experiment Analyze (f)MRI data

Contact Person Philippe Tobler

ContactInformation [email protected]

Website http://www.econ.uzh.ch/faculty/grouptobler.html

Remarks Early contact of local Erasmus administrators recommended


http://www.econ.uzh.ch/faculty/grouptobler.html


Institute University of Oxford

Lab Social Neuroeconomics Lab

Title of Project Neural and behavioral mechanisms of human altruism

Type of Project Cognitive neuroscience; cognitive science

Supervisor Molly Crockett

Duration Minimum 16 weeks

Start date January 2013

End date Open

Description of Research Project: A minimal morality would require a duty of easy rescue – when the cost to a person of performing some act is small and the benefit to others great, the agent should perform that act. Yet our moral psychology has a limited disposition to help strangers or people in the future. This feature of our psychology contributes to global inequality and poverty. Master’s students will be involved in a large-scale, multidisciplinary research project examining the factors which affect human altruism, its neural underpinnings and strategies to change it. In particular, psychological research will be conducted to explore: (a) the influence of framing helpful acts as preventing harm vs. providing benefit; (b) whether public knowledge of helpful actions increases their likelihood; (c) personality factors that predict helping behavior. On this basis, we will (d) formulate hypotheses for the neural explanations of differences in altruism and explore these using neuroimaging. Next, we will (e) examine interventions to modify altruistic behavior, using psychological, pharmacological and transcranial electrical stimulation methods. The student’s role in the project: Experimental design; participant recruitment and data collection; data analysis. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab, Cogent) highly desirable. Experience with data analysis (e.g. SPSS, STATA) highly desirable.

Contact Person Molly Crockett


Website www.mollycrockett.com

Remarks




Institute University of Reading, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences

Lab NRG: Neuroimaging of Reward Group

Title of Project "Reward processing in the brain of those at risk of eating disorders."

Type of Project Human neuroimaging

Supervisor Dr Ciara McCabe

Duration 5-7 months

Start date Sep 2014 or Jan 2014

End date Mar 2015 or July 2015

Description of Research Project: Abnormal reward responses in the human brain have been shown in those suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa (AN) bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). These deficits in reward are thought to underlie how natural rewards such as food can be restricted in AN or craved and over consumed in BN. We have previously shown that there is a dysfunctional reward system in those recovered from AN whereby those with a history of AN had increased neural responses to reward compared to healthy control comparisons. We suggest that these results point to reward processing in the human brain as a possible biological trait marker for such disorders. However one problem from our work to date is that it is not possible to tell if the results are truly a trait or simply a scar of having an illness. Thus we propose to look at the neural response to reward in those “at risk” but that have not yet experienced an eating disorder. In addition, we aim to investigate whether aversive processing is also dysfunctional in those at risk of eating disorders. Finally we also aim to examine the connectivity in the brain using the resting state to see how this might be dysfunctional in those “at risk” as we found increased connectivity in the default mode network in recovered AN patients suggesting a neural marker for increased cognitive control. The student’s role in the project: Recruiting, screening, running fMRI experiment, analyzing data, writing methods and results.

Contact Person Ciara McCabe


Website http://www.reading.ac.uk/pcls/people/c-mccabe.aspx

Remarks http://www.ciaramccabe.co.uk/index.html


http://www.reading.ac.uk/pcls/people/c-mccabe.aspx

http://www.ciaramccabe.co.uk/index.html




Title of Project "Reward processing in preclinical models of experimental medicine”.



Duration 5-7 months



Description of Research Project: Abnormal reward responses in the brain are assumed to underlie disorders of compulsion. We are developing preclinical models of wanting and liking to begin to decipher how current pharmacological treatments for psychiatric disorders impact these processes. We propose to look at the responses to reward in animals pre-treated with psychiatric treatments and look at their effects also on satiety and feeding behaviour. This work will take place at the University of Reading Behavioural research Unit in collaboration with Dr Claire Williams and expert in feeding behaviour and the effects of cannabinoids. The student’s role in the project: Recruiting, screening, running fMRI experiment, analyzing data, writing methods and results.








Internship: Sleep and memory research using MEG-EEG This project brings together specialists on MEG, sleep electrophysiology and the role of sleep in cognition. The goal of the collaboration is to use the superior localizing properties of MEG to study sleep and memory. Research questions regard 1) the spatiotemporal dynamics of oscillatory brain activity during sleep and 2) the role of sleep in memory processing. We are looking for an internship student to participate in simultaneous MEG-EEG data recording and analysis. This internship offers the possibility to work at one of the most prestigious neuroimaging centers worldwide and to interact with an international team of top scientists. Senior scientists: L.M. Talamini (UvA), M. Schabus (Salzburg University), O. Jenssen (Donders centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Nijmegen). Location for data collection: Donders Institute, Centre for Neuroimaging, Nijmegen. Techniques: a.o. simultaneous MEG-EEG recording, time frequency analysis, source localization, sleep EEG scoring. Duration: tbd, but at least 6 months. Start: flexible. Candidate: Highly motivated student with very serious work attitude, statistical know-how, and at least some background regarding the above-mentioned techniques.




Title of Project Investigating the effects of mood on Reward processing in the adolescent human brain



Duration 5-7 months



Description of Research Project: Reward dysfunction as a biomarker for depression Psychiatric disorders such as depression have been shown to have dysfunctional reward systems thought to underlie the symptom of anhedonia in depression. Anhedonia is one of the main symptoms of depression and is thought to be a biomarker as it predates the onset and can persist into recovery. In a previous study we have shown that those who are recovered from depression have reduced response to reward (McCabe et al., 2009) and more recently that young people with a family history of depression also have deficits in how they process rewarding information at the neural level (McCabe et al., 2012). In this study we aim to examine the effects of current low mood in adolescents before the onset of a major depressive episode and examine if they have deficits in how they process reward. We are also interested to know if there are differences in “wanting” and “liking” aspects of reward by giving people an experiment involving chocolate during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By examining if there are differences in reward responses of wanting and liking we can begin to develop better treatments for reward related symptoms in psychiatric disorders. The student’s role in the project: Recruiting, screening, running fMRI experiment, analyzing data, writing methods and results.









Institute: Academic Medical Center (AMC), department of psychiatry

Lab: BIC (Brain Imaging Center)

Title of Project: Diagnostic Imaging of Affective Disorders using Emotion processing (DIADE)

Type of Project: Neuroimaging (fMRI, sMRI, DTI)

Supervisor: M. M. Rive

Duration: 18 or 22 weeks

Start date: October 2014

End date: February 17th, 2015

Description of Research Project: DIADE focusses on neuroimaging differences between major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar

disorder (BD). Several imaging modules have been used to asses differences in brain function (fMRI, using emotional and cognitive paradigms) and structure (sMRI, DTI). In total, about 120 subjects have been scanned, allowing for comparison between depressed and remitted MDD and BD subjects, as well as healthy controls.

The student’s role in the project: The student will analyse the DTI data to investigate white matter tract abnormalities in MDD and BD (data

already acquired). Preferably, two different methods are used: tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and tractography.

Contact Person: M. M. (Maaike) Rive

Contact Information: [email protected]; 020-891369 (not on Wednesdays)

Website:

Remarks:




Institute: Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading

Lab: Bhismalab (www.bhismalab.org)

Title of Project: How autism related traits influence self representation

Type of Project: Psychophysics, social neuroscience

Supervisor: Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti

Duration: 6 months +


End date: Flexible


People with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have been suggested to demonstrate atypical self representation (Lombardo, Chakrabarti, et al., 2010). In addition to atypicalities in processing psychological aspects of self, individuals with ASC also show significant differences in the neural responses to physical self-representation (e.g. presentations of self face) (Morita et al., 2012;Kita et al., 2011). While such ‘neural correlates’ of self-representation have been reported in the literature, fundamental psychophysical metrics of self-representation are missing. To address this niche, the current project seeks to develop and test a metric of physical self representation using rigorous psychophysical image classification techniques. This metric of self representation will in turn be tested in relation to autistic symptoms. Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Bullmore, E. T., Sadek, S. A., Pasco, G., Wheelwright, S. J., ... & Baron-Cohen, S. (2010). Atypical neural self-representation in autism. Brain, 133(2), 611-624. Morita, T., Kosaka, H., Saito, D. N., Ishitobi, M., Munesue, T., Itakura, S., ... & Sadato, N. (2012). Emotional responses associated with self-face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: An fMRI study. Social neuroscience, 7(3), 223-239. Kita, Y., Gunji, A., Inoue, Y., Goto, T., Sakihara, K., Kaga, M., ... & Hosokawa, T. (2011). Self-face recognition in children with autism spectrum disorders: a near-infrared spectroscopy study. Brain and Development, 33(6), 494-503.


The student will be involved in programming the psychophysics task, and running the experiment and analyzing the data, and writing up the report. Familiarity with matlab will be helpful, particularly suitable for those with good analytical/ quantitative skills.

Contact Person: Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti


Website: www.bhismalab.org

Remarks:


Institute: Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading

Lab: Bhismalab (www.bhismalab.org)

Title of Project: How trait anxiety influences spontaneous facial mimicry in children

Type of Project: Psychophysiology, social neuroscience

Supervisor: Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti and Dr. Helen Dodd

Duration: 6 months +


End date: Flexible


Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions are known to exhibit atypical spontaneous facial mimicry (Beall et al., 2008). This observation is typically interpreted as a deficit in empathy. However, autism shows a high comorbidity with anxiety, and it is not known whether the observed atypicalities in spontaneous facial mimicry are driven by high social anxiety seen in these children. To provide a first test of this hypothesis, this project will measure spontaneous facial mimicry (using facial EMG) in a sample of children with varying levels of trait anxiety. Beall, P. M., Moody, E. J., McIntosh, D. N., Hepburn, S. L., & Reed, C. L. (2008). Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of experimental child psychology, 101(3), 206-223.


The student will be involved in setting up the psychophysiological task, and running the experiment and analyzing the data, and writing up the report.

Contact Person: Dr. Bhismadev Chakrabarti


Website: www.bhismalab.org

Remarks:

available research projects master brain and cognitive

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