Regular users of cannabis are less aware of their own mistakes, and they are not good at creative thinking. This is the conclusion drawn by psychologist Mikael Kowal from his research on the effects of cannabis. PhD defence 6 October.

Although there has been an increase in the research into brain function and dysfunction in relation to stress and emotions, there are still many unanswered questions.

Young people influence one another to take greater risks, although it's not quite that cut and dried. This is what development psychologist Jorien van Hoorn discovered. Peers also have a positive influence on one another, an aspect that has so far been under-researched. PhD defence 12 January.

In the future, physicians may be able to identify dementia much earlier than they can today because a computer algorithm will be able to predict from brain scans how our memory is going to develop.

How can we implement the technique of pharmacological resting-state fMRI to improve the diagnosis of dementia?

What is the relation between brain development and social and cognitive development across childhood, adolescence and adulthood?

Psycholinguistic research

The LIBC is actively involved in training and education in the field of brain and cognition.

How can we help children and adults to acquire better reading comprehension? Paul van den Broek and his colleagues at the Brain and Education Lab are searching for an answer to this question by investigating reading and the related brain activity.

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition is a network that stimulates interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and expertise on topics related to brain and cognition and focuses on science valorisation and outreach. Its research members come from a broad and diverse spectrum of specialized academic…

Are you interested in the neurocognitive and biological roots of learning, behaviour and emotions in children? If so, the programme in Applied Neuroscience in Human Development might be the specialisation you are looking for.

The Brain and Education lab is a research group in the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Our group is embedded in the Educational Sciences research program and the Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition.

The Horizon 2020 project Sybil-AA (Systems Biology of Alcohol Addiction) focuses on modeling and validating disease state networks in human and animal brains for understanding pathophysiology, predicting outcomes and improving therapy in alcohol addiction. Alcohol addiction, the most severe form of…

On the 12th of October, Fatemeh Tabassi Mofrad successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Fatemeh on this achievement!

PhD defence

The main focus of our research programme is on adolescence, a key transitional period in human development. The programme puts emphasis on combined experimental behavioural and neural analysis of normative transitions and deviations in adolescent development.

What is the role of the noradrenergic system in human cognition?

Tiny selenium particles could have a therapeutic effect on ischemic brain strokes by promoting the recovery of brain damage. Pharmacologists, including Alireza Mashaghi from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research discovered that selenium nanoparticles inhibit molecular mechanisms that are responsible…

The updated MRI scanner at the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) will become operational on 29 September. The new version is faster and better than the current model.

Analysis of neuroimaging data requires multiple steps where statistics play a crucial role. The MRI methods research group develops new statistical methods that are accurate, transparent and easy to use.

Neural networks have a wide range of applications. In Leiden, psychologists use them to build robot brains, whereas archaeologists use them to hunt for prehistoric graves.

Conference

We teach several courses in the domain of Mind, Brain, and Education.

Eveline Crone, professor of neurocognitive developmental psychology at Leiden University, has been awarded the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences by KNAW.

Yearly, the LIBC organizes a public event to share scientific research in the field of brain & cognition

The LIBC organizes Sylvius Lectures and Colloquia for scientists and students about brain & cognition.

What is the effect of training children to exercise self-control? Niko Steinbeis has been awarded a major European subsidy to find the answer to this question. The innovative aspects of this research are the target group, an individual approach to the training and examining the child brain the scann…

Together with researchers from over the world, the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group endeavors to unravel the neurobiology of anxiety disorders and related constructs.

Are you interested in the neurocognitive and biological roots of learning, behaviour and emotions in children? If so, the programme in Applied Neuroscience in Human Development might be the specialisation you are looking for.

The Brain and Education Lab is located in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University.

On the 17th of January, Sarah Von Grebmer Zu Wolfsthurn successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Sarah on this achievement!

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disorder and the primary cause of dementia. The neuropathological features of AD include the occurrence of senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, decreased synaptic density, and loss of neurons. An obstacle in the study and treatment…

The experiments described in this thesis employ local lentiviral knockdowns in brain areas of female zebra finches followed by behavioural assays consisting of preference and Go/Nogo tasks.

Because we cannot directly ask babies about what they know or what they are thinking about, we must find smart and baby-friendly ways to figure it out! Below you can read about the different methods that we typically use in our studies.

Eveline Crone, Professor of Neurocognitive Development Psychology at Leiden University, has been elected as the new Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC). She will be in charge of ERC activities in the domain of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Fundamental research teaches us how our brain decides to eat one more sweet, instead of doing exercise. A public information campaign about healthy lifestyle has little impact on the decision, as Professor of General Psychology Bernard Hommel is aware. However, he does know what works. But the question…

Training a robot in a real-life environment is more or less impossible. Computer scientist and psychologist Roy de Kleijn switched to training in a simulated, virtual one instead. ‘You do have a reality gap, but the more precisely you train the robot, the better it is in practice.’ His inspiration:…

Cognitive decline (amongst other problems with attention, concentration, memory) is a common symptom in patients with a variety of brain disorders and has been related to healthy ageing as well. People suffering from cognitive deficits are often significantly hampered in their day-to-day functioning…

All brain and/or cognition researchers from Leiden University or the LUMC or colleagues seeking collaboration in this field are most welcome to join the LIBC!

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What are the social and neural mechanisms that contribute to fluctuations in self-esteem in healthy adolescents and adolescents with depression?

Detection of cerebral beta-amyloid (Abeta) by targeted contrast agents remains of great interest to aid the in vivo diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Bis-styrylbenzenes have been previously reported as potential Abeta imaging agents.