Newsitems Archive

The application of neuroscience has become an indispensable part of behavioural science. This interdisciplinary approach offers researchers new insights into the complex interactions between the brain, behaviour and the role of the environment. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, scientists can observe brain activity while participants perform various tasks. As of November 2024, Erasmus University Rotterdam will start intensive collaboration with the Erasmus Medical Centre, and a new research-dedicated 3 Tesla MRI scanner will be used to conduct high-quality neuroscientific research.

A wide range of researchers will use the MRI scanner located at the Erasmus Medical Center, including those from the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) and Rotterdam School of Management (RSM). Researchers use the scanner for both functional and structural brain research. Think of studying brain activity during cognitive tasks of making choices and analyzing brain structure about psychological factors, individual characteristics and skills Thanks to the collaboration between the various faculties and the Erasmus Medical Center, MRI scans are now more accessible to researchers. This lowers the threshold for conducting neurocognitive studies and increases the research capacity within Erasmus University.

Using fMRI to explore the complex relationship between brain and behaviour

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an advanced technique that allows researchers to study brain activity during cognitive tasks, such as decision-making. While the structural MRI scanner mainly maps the grey and white matter in the brain, fMRI offers the possibility to observe in real-time which brain areas are active and how they communicate with each other. This technique stimulates collaboration between disciplines, including sociology, business administration, economics, psychology and neuroscience. This development fits perfectly with various research projects at Erasmus University that use fMRI to explore the complex relationship between brains and behaviour.

State of the Art MRI scanning facilities in Rotterdam

Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)

The consortium ‘Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)’, led by Prof. Dr. Eveline Crone, is one of the projects that will use fMRI intensively. They investigate how young people develop and can grow up successfully within society. It focuses on social interactions, cognitive development and the role of environmental factors. Using fMRI and other methods, the researchers want to gain insight into the neural mechanisms behind future-oriented behaviour, rewards for self and others and social trust. The GUTS programme also has a second leg in the Erasmus Behavioural Lab, where EEG research is conducted.

In SYNC Science Stories, we tell the stories behind our research results. Who are our researchers, and what motivates them? By focusing on three key themes, we explore today’s generation of youth and highlight how our researchers inspire each other.

Well-being: What challenges are young people currently facing?
Trust: How much trust do young people have?
Impulsivity: How does impulsivity shape the decisions young people make?

Read our new magazine SYNC Science Stories (published in Dutch) via the link: https://www.sync-sciencestories.nl/ (also suitable for tablet and phone).

Design: Dimitri Mau Asam and Glenn Windhouwer
Content: Sterre van Riel

On October 31, Kayla Green defended her dissertation titled: “Becoming and Thriving in a Changing World” with honours. Her research focuses on the wellbeing of young people growing up in a rapidly changing society, with special attention to underrepresented groups.

Her dissertation, “Becoming and Thriving in a Changing World: Socioeconomic, social, and neural determinants of wellbeing across adolescence and young adulthood,” focuses on young people growing up in a complex, fast-changing society and the impact this has on their well-being, with a particular focus on engaging underrepresented groups. This includes youth with bi- or multicultural backgrounds and those facing socioeconomic challenges. “In general, they’re less represented in research. There were so few young people who looked like me, which of course depends on location. There was more diversity in Rotterdam, but it’s still not representative. We need to do more to keep these young people involved in studies.”

Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, Kayla shows how such events have impacted young people, particularly those facing socioeconomic difficulties, who were hit harder in terms of well-being. “I hope people realize that adolescence is a period full of changes, which can make young people behave differently, but that’s okay! Most young people are doing fine, but some are struggling, and we need to keep paying attention to that. It’s not enough to just blame one thing like ‘social media,” Kayla explains.

Her dissertation also addresses youth participation and how research can be conducted in collaboration with young people, such as co-creating a new well-being questionnaire. This approach can also contribute to greater diversity in research. “We need to try to include a representative group of young people in our research. Even if we increase from 5 to 10 percent, that’s something! Most studies researchers cite come from Europe, the US, etc., but we need to ensure that studies from other regions are also considered.”

Her enthusiasm for her work is clear, as she loves the variety in her workdays and the impact she can have on society. “Don’t put me on two weeks of just writing, I love it when other tasks come up in between! Data analysis, management, giving presentations – these things help me better understand how young people are growing up in a complex society. I’ve learned so much, which has allowed me to write what I’ve written!”

About Kayla Green

Kayla Green is a postdoc in the SYNC Lab at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is currently finishing up her PhD on the social and neural determinants of well-being among adolescents and young adults. Green’s work focuses on the adverse effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on brain development and well-being. She combines various methods, such as (f)MRI, survey, and youth participation. Green is co-founder of the science communication and youth participation platform YoungXperts. In 2022, Green was elected by the KNAW and NEMO Kennislink as one of the Faces of Science. Since then, she has frequently written blogs and made vlogs about her work and life as a scientist. Green also dedicates part of her time to work related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia. She is a member of the Diversity working group of Flux Society and is affiliated with the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Center of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

On June 18 Lina van Drunen defended her dissertation entitled “Rhythms of Resilience: Individual Differences in Genetic and Environmental Effects on Brain Development.”

What impact does growing up in a musical environment or during the COVID-19 pandemic have on the brain development of teenagers? This was the focus of psychologist Lina van Drunen’s PhD research, which studied hundreds of twins. Her findings reveal that practising music slows brain development, presenting unique opportunities.

Developmental psychologist Lina van Drunen understands the dedication required to learn a musical instrument like no one else. ‘I play guitar and sing, so I was particularly interested in discovering how these activities affect brain development.’ As she delved into the literature, she realised: ‘A lot of research has been conducted on the effects of disadvantaged environments on the brain, such as growing up with many stressors. However, there’s been little investigation into the effects of cognitively enriching environments, such as those filled with music.’

For her PhD research, Van Drunen examined the influence of a musical environment and of the COVID-19 pandemic on the brain development of 500 pairs of twins aged 7 to 14.

A unique opportunity

‘The data collection for my research began eight years ago, but my PhD journey lasted four years,’ Van Drunen explains. When the third MRI study commenced in 2020, more than 100 pairs of twins had already participated before the COVID-19 pandemic started. ‘Then the research halted for three months. That was a shock, but fortunately, we could resume the measurements afterward.’ This period offered a unique opportunity. ‘We could now measure the impact of the pandemic as a disadvantaged environment on brain development. We already had data from a group of young people who hadn’t experienced the pandemic, allowing us to compare it with those growing up during the pandemic.’ Over six years, the twins underwent three MRI scans, performed cognitive tasks, social behaviour tasks, and a sensorimotor synchronisation task to measure musicality.

‘We suspect that the brains of musical youngsters develop longer’

Playing music slows down brain development

In the musicality task, the researchers measured how well the participants could move their fingers to the beat of a metronome and music. They then looked at how brain development predicted how good young people were at that task. ‘We saw that some brain regions developed more slowly in young people who were good at the music task and practised a lot on an instrument than in young people who were less good at the music task.’ That sounds negative, but Van Drunen and her colleagues actually interpret this result as a sign that the brain is developing more slowly. ‘Our suggestion is that the brains of musical youngsters develop longer and the so-called window of learning is wider. We already saw this effect in young people who occasionally play music at amateur level.’ That a musical environment is enriching for brain development is also consistent with previous research.. This shows that playing music lowers stress, improves emotion regulation and is good for your social interaction because you play with others.

‘The COVID-19 pandemic required youth to mature more quickly in certain areas’

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic

On the contrary, the researchers saw an opposite effect when they looked at the impact of the corona pandemic. ‘There, we saw accelerated development of certain brain regions, notably the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus that are associated with social interactions and regulating stress. Such accelerated development is not necessarily a bad thing. Brains seem to adapt in this way so that you can best survive in the environment you grow up in. The corona pandemic required young people to mature faster in certain areas.’ Moreover, after a while, the brain region involved in taking another person’s perspective developed at a rate similar to that before the pandemic. ‘So apparently children found ways to maintain social contacts in a new way. That also indicates resilience.’

Teenagers’ well-being

Van Drunen stresses that her results say nothing about how bad or desirable it is if the brain develops at a certain rate. ‘We now know that the environment plays a major role in how that happens in the teenage years, but it is not yet clear what influence this has on young people’s well-being.’ She will therefore be investigating this further in the coming years as a postdoc of the ActiveMinds project at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. ‘Together with young people, we will find out how they think about mental and physical well-being and how we can best measure it. That way, we will learn with them what they can do to boost their own well-being.’

Promotors: Prof. Dr. Eveline Crone and Dr. Lara Wierenga

Lina was invited to explain her research on the radio program NTR program Podium Klassiek, you can listen to the interview here.

Presentation of Manifesto to Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten

On June 11, the YoungXperts team presented a manifesto (in Dutch) to Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten, focusing on the youth perspective on the climate crisis. The climate crisis has significant consequences for everyone, particularly for young people who will experience the impacts more profoundly in their future.

Minister Rob Jetten (Leader of D66 and Minister for Climate and Energy) stated: “I speak with many young people who are worried about their future due to climate change. The Netherlands is already facing severe floods, hot summers, and failed crops. Let that be a message to the new coalition: do not hit the brakes now. Let’s tackle the climate task together. It’s good for the planet and our wallets.”

Over the past few months, researchers from the youth platform YoungXperts (part of the Erasmus SYNC Lab) examined young people’s perspectives on the climate crisis. Young people (aged 12-28) not only face problems in their daily lives but often see the solutions as well. They are, therefore, the experts on their own lives. How do young people experience growing up during a climate crisis?

Young People Want to Turn Their Concerns into Action
Most young people are aware of climate change; 79% indicated this in an online survey. About 56% of young people take actions in their daily lives against the climate crisis, such as lowering the heating or buying fewer items. Some young people experience lower mental well-being and worry about the future due to the climate crisis. However, the manifesto shows that young people can be ‘agents of change’ by turning their concerns into action. They want to collaborate with others for the climate and find that talking or taking action together helps alleviate their worries. This fits with adolescence, where friendships play an important role. Doing something together for the climate can also empower young people, potentially reducing the negative impact of the climate crisis on their mental well-being.

Professor Eveline Crone states: “The world is changing rapidly, and it is crucial that policymakers take young people’s voices seriously because it concerns their future. As scientists, we try to provide the knowledge and tools to make this possible.”

Climate Education is Very Important
Young people who take little or no action state that this is due to a lack of knowledge about climate change and not seeing it as a crisis. In some youth panels, it was mentioned that climate issues are not discussed in school, and young people themselves are calling for mandatory climate education in high schools.

Researcher Anne-Wil Kramer explains: “Climate education works best when integrated into existing subjects. The importance of climate change as a crisis is most apparent in subjects like social studies and citizenship, rather than just geography. This is because it’s important to have knowledge not only about climate change itself but also about how to deal with it, now and in the future.”

Young People Want to Participate in Decision-Making About Their Future
Finally, the manifesto shows that young people want to have a say in their future. Researcher Lysanne te Brinke: “During brainstorming sessions with young people, we discovered that they have many ideas about possible solutions to the climate crisis but often feel unheard by policymakers. If you feel that policies are not made with you in mind, you are less willing to change your behavior.” Therefore, young people advocate for demonstrably including the youth perspective in policy decisions on climate, for example, with a generational test.

Curious about the entire manifesto? Read it here!

Growing inequality of educational opportunities is a widely recognized societal issue, yet where do young people themselves believe the solutions lie? The YoungXperts team explored this together with 700 adolescents in Rotterdam through surveys and brainstorming sessions.

In the newly published manifesto ‘Youth perspective on social inequality in education’ you will find the results: scientific knowledge about social inequality in education combined with creative solutions from young people themselves.

Handing over the manifesto to Albeda mbo

On Tuesday, February 27, Eveline Crone and the YoungXperts team visited Albeda mbo. During the event, Crone gave an inspiring lecture on polarization and inequality of opportunities. YoungXperts researchers Kayla Green and Yara Toenders handed over the manifesto to the board of directors of Albeda, teachers and all other attendees in the room.

The handover of the manifesto is a great first step in the collaboration between the Erasmus SYNC-lab and the education institution Albeda. The goal of this collaboration is to join efforts in advocating for a future in which all young people in the Netherlands have equal opportunities to develop. Effectively addressing social inequality in education is an essential part of this.

Collecting diverse perspectives on societal themes

Complex societal themes, such as social inequality in education, call for an interdisciplinary approach, with scientists closely collaborating with young people, professionals, and societal partners. A diversity of perspectives and knowledge allows us to approach multidimensional problems from different angles.

Curious about the results? View the one-pager here or read the full manifesto.

Photos: Alexander Santos Lima

The new year is in full swing, but we would like to take a moment to reflect: in the past year, we conducted 141 brain scans, published 17 times in scientific journals, organized 20 focus groups, and reached a total of over 2800 young people with our work. Our new magazine, SYNC Wrapped 2023, provides a glimpse into our impactful projects and our vision for the upcoming year.

Not only are we looking at the numbers reflecting the past year, but we also like to share the stories behind them. How did SYNC colleagues experience the past year? What were their highlights and challenges?

A recurring challenge in youth research, for example, is recruiting a diverse group of participants. This sometimes results in scientists’ conclusions not being fully comprehensive. With the Urban Rotterdam Project we have been studying what young people need to thrive by doing surveys multiple times a year since 2020. In this project, we specifically focus on recruiting young people from Rotterdam with diverse backgrounds. Over the years, we are getting better at this: this year we studied a good representation of all young people in Rotterdam, unlike previous samples.

Curious about the Urban Rotterdam Project and what else we have achieved? You can read it now in our newly published magazine SYNC wrapped 2023 (to open the magazine, click the link or the image below).

In the coming year, we will continue to strive for an optimal future for all young people, regardless of background. By collaborating with partners such as Healthy Start, GUTS, NJR, Lieve Mark, MindUs, and many more, our scientific research truly contributes to the environment in which young people grow up.

Keep an eye on our LinkedIn and X for updates on our impactful projects in the coming year!

On October 26th, Simone Dobbelaar defended her dissertation entitled “Helping me, helping you. Behavioral and neural development of social competence from childhood to adolescence.”

Summary of the dissertation

Why do some children easily find their way in social situations and are satisfied with their social lives, while others experience more difficulties? One key component that may explain this is social competence: the ability to fulfill both own and other’s social goals, for example in social interactions. This thesis focused on individual differences in social competencedevelopment from childhood to adolescence, an important developmental period that is marked by an increase in social experiences and interactions. To understand individual differences in social competence development, I examined contextual, developmental, environmental and neurobiological influences on aggressive and prosocial responses to social evaluation. Moreover, I examined whether the co-occurrence of aggression and prosocial behavior may work as predictor for developmental outcomes such as wellbeing later in time.

The results of this thesis can be described in three main findings. First, findings showed that there were robust neural processes related to the processing of social feedback and subsequent aggression already in middle childhood. Additionally, this thesis revealed that the period between childhood and adolescence is important for the behavioral and neural development of inhibition of aggression following negative, neutral and positive social feedback. Aggression following social feedback decreased towards adolescence, but aggression following positive feedback decreased earlier in childhood than aggression following negative feedback. Moreover, the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, known for its role in executive functioning and inhibition, decreased over time. Finally, results indicated that the co-occurrence of aggression following rejection of oneself and prosocial behavior following observed rejection of others may possibly protect against externalizing behaviors and promote wellbeing. Together, this thesis highlights the importance of examining the interplay of developmental processes across social contexts to understand mental health outcomes later in adolescence.

Simone Dobbelaar will continue as a post-doc for the GUTS project. Within GUTS, she will focus on the role of peer networks and social dynamics in relation to neural processes related to self regulation.

Promotors:
Michelle Achterberg, Anna van Duijvenvoorde and Eveline Crone.

You can find an interview with Simone regarding her research in the article titled “Een beetje agressie helpt kinderen in hun sociale ontwikkeling, ontdekte Simone Dobbelaar tijdens haar promotie.” To access the interview, please follow this link: Interview with Simone Dobbelaar.

The brain is a fascinating organ that keeps developing over time, influenced by experiences and genes. Eveline Crone and Hilleke Hulshoff Pol both study the brain and its role in development. In their mirrored interview for popular science magazine New Scientist, Crone and Hulshoff Pol explain their most important findings so far, and what they ideally want to achieve with their research. They also share personal matters: Hulshoff Pol’s passion for sculpting and Crone’s work-life balance.

‘I study how young people can grow up in the best possible way; how their social worlds, such as parents, school, and friends, interact. My staff and I pay attention to a person’s environment and personal characteristics. We are particularly interested in how it is possible that people are sometimes focused on the well-being of others and at other times on their own well-being. How do you balance between these interests? We take into account all kinds of influences from the environment, such as the neighbourhood in which the child grows up, the role of the family, and that of friends. Together, these social worlds influence who the child is’, states Eveline Crone.

In return, Hilleke Hulshoff Pol explains: ‘The biggest breakthrough of our research is that we have proved that genes affect brain growth or shrinkage. We also have evidence that these changes affect how we function, how we develop, how we age, and possibly the development of psychiatric disorders.’

Eveline Crone is head of the L-CID study. Hilleke Hulshoff Pol is professor at Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht.

The full article will be published in New Scientist, as part of the magazine’s special issue about the Consortium on Individual Development. The article will appear in September 2023. Read a preview of the interview here.

Images: New Scientist

Developmental neuroscientist Eveline Crone, based at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, has been awarded the Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellowship 2023/24 for her research on the emerging of curiosity. During her fellowship, starting September 2023, she will unravel how changes in curiosity emerge, and which factors facilitate opportunities for curiosity in biological, individuals, social and societal domains.

The Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellowship (DNLF) is set up by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) and the Lorentz Center to promote cutting edge interdisciplinary research. The Fellowship is awarded to a leading scientist working on research that, in essential ways, combines perspectives from the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Technological Sciences.

About Eveline Crone’s research

Eveline Crone has a specific interest in the developing human brains and its cognitive functions. Her work on brain imaging in young individuals is groundbreaking and has led to numerous scientific discoveries and recognitions. For example, Crone demonstrated that brain regions that are important for learning, show development changes during adolescence. She also recently found out that adolescents who report stable and warm friendships across adolescence show heightened activation in reward centers of the brain when gaining awards for their friends.

Aim of the fellowship research: new theory on emerging curiosity

At the basic psychological level, curiosity has been of interest to psychologist for centuries, but little progress has been made in developing a unified theory of curiosity. Crone wants to develop and propose a new theory on emerging curiosity which argues that changes in the human brain during adolescence may reflect a transition period for curiosity. The development of curiosity is expected to be of importance for taking social responsibilities and to aid rapid adaption to different contexts. During her research, Crone will combine traditional cognitive science approaches with novel methods from industrial design engineering and cognitive and affective neuroscience literature.

About Eveline Crone

Eveline Crone (Schiedam, 1975) studied developmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam and obtained her PhD cum laude in 2003. After she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, Crone came to Leiden University. In 2009 she was appointed professor in Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology at this university. In addition, Crone started as professor of Developmental Neuroscience in Society at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in 2020.

Crone has been awarded several prestigious research grants, including a VENI, VIDI and VICI grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and two grants by the European Research Council (ERC), namely a Starting Grant in 2010 and a Consolidator Grant in 2016. In September 2017, Eveline received the Spinoza award for her research on the adolescent brain. She is known to the general public for her book ‘Het puberende brein’ (The adolescent brain).