Biography

It was during my BSc in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, NL, that I became interested in how social, cultural and environmental factors present in the immediate environment can bring about individual differences between people. It became clear that brain development and neuroplasticity play a crucial role in contributing to these individual differences and I developed a deep interest in developmental neuroscience. For this reason, I completed an MRes in Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, UK, focusing on adolescent socio-cognitive development. I am especially interested in the period of adolescence (defined as 10 to 24 years) because 75% of socio-emotional disorders first appear during this period of life, highlighting the urgent need to better understand how the social environment contributes to the development of the brain and cognition. In a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Global Health in Barcelona, I will carry out an interdisciplinary PhD project that will assess how sociocultural and environmental factors contribute to self- and socio-cognitive processing in adolescence, and how these may be associated with risk and resilience to mental health problems.

Previous Education

University College London Cognitive Neuroscience 2019
University of Amsterdam PPLE - Psychology Major 2018