My Research
So far, my research has been focused on both translational research and developmental research. Currently, I am working on the OMSS-project (see below). Moreover, I am involved in organizing REMAC, where we aim to connect different researchers at Radboud University using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA).
OMSS-project
OMSS stands for Open Matrices Stimuli Set, and the aim of this project is to generate a stimuli set that can assess fluid reasoning. Although there are other tests out there, such as the Raven Matrices or the Cattell Culture Fair test, that can assess fluid reasoning, these tests are expensive and heavily copyrighted, leading to an underrepresentation of non-WEIRD populations. Moreover, they are also limited in item numbers, which restricts the potential of longitudinal within-subject designs.
In the OMSS project, we aim to solve these issues by developing a program that can generate an almost infinite set of matrices with different difficulty levels that can assess fluid reasoning. The stimuli and the program that generates them will adhere to the FAIR principles. As of now, the program is still in development. However, some of the stimuli we have already created are being used in studies, such as the Codec Study. We aim to finish the program by early spring 2025!
Examples of our OMSS stimuli
Comparing the mouse and human cingulate
One of my key past research projects involved comparing the organization of the cingulate cortex in humans and mice. I worked as an intern at the Neuro-Ecology Lab (supervised by Rogier Mars and Joanes Grandjean) where I had the opportunity to investigate the similarities and differences between the mouse and human cingulate cortex. I used tracer data, rodent resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI), and human rs-fMRI to examine functional connectivity across species.
This research found overall similarities in the organization of the cingulate cortex between humans and mice, particularly in the anterior, midcingulate, and retrosplenial areas. However, human cingulate cortex exhibited a more fine-grained organization and had connections to prefrontal areas not found in the mouse. These findings help improve our understanding of cross-species brain organization and facilitate the translation of preclinical results to human studies.
Check out the full study in the paper: Comparing mouse and human cingulate cortex organization using functional connectivity.
Developmental Research
Besides my current role at the LCD-lab, I also had the opportunity to engage in developmental research at the Behavioural Science Institute, where I worked as a coding manager for the Nijmegen Longitudinal Study, under the supervision of Toon Cillessen. In this project, we investigated social interactions between familiar and unfamiliar peers in several tasks. Exciting stuff!
Additionally, I worked in the Cognitive Aging Lab under the supervision of Iris Wiegand. In this project, we investigated visual search patterns in aging using eye tracking.