Specialization
MRI, MRS, neuropharmacology
Focus of research
MRI, MR spectroscopy, neuropharmacology, psychiatry, brain plasticity
I am a neuroscientist and neuropsychologist based at the department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine department of the Amsterdam UMC, location AMC (The Netherlands). In my lab, we focus on the development and application of functional neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain function.
My main interests and activities are directed towards investigating the effect of pharmacological and physiological interventions on functional brain activity and its behavioral and cognitive correlates. The advances in functional MRI have allowed us to study dynamic processes in the brain in response to a task, pharmacological challenge or physiological intervention. The majority of my work has focused on pharmacological MRI, a technique to investigate the brain’s functional response to a drug challenge. In addition to hemodynamic measures of functional activity, I am also interested in using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to obtain more direct measures of neuronal and metabolic activity. I'm particularly interested in how interventions, be it pharmacological or behavioral, perturb the brain from its resting state, and how these mechanisms are altered in psychiatric disorders, with the ultimate aim to improve treatment strategies.