I am a cognitive neuroscientist with a very broad interest in brain-body interactions. In my research I investigate how signals arising from our organs, such as the rhythmic beating of the heart or contractions of the stomach, can influence our brain and behaviour, ranging from motor responses to our subjective experience of emotions. To look into these questions I use methods such as EEG, non-invasive brain stimulation, and physiological recordings. I am currently working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Subjectivity, Brain & Viscera lab at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Next to my research, I am also involved in the Equality & Diversity committee of the département d’études cognitives, and work as a lecturer and instructor for the European TMS certification course.
BACKGROUND
I completed a BSc in Biological Psychology at Maastricht University, followed by a Research Master degree in Cognitive Neuroscience. As part of my Master’s degree, I spend 1 year working at the Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Copenhagen, where I learned concurrent TMS-fMRI acquisition techniques under the supervision of Axel Thielscher. I then moved back to Maastricht for my PhD degree, which I completed at the Cognitive Neuroscience department of Maastricht University. Here I was part of the Brain and Emotion lab of Beatrice de Gelder, and the Brain Stimulation and Cognition group of Alexander Sack. During my PhD, my projects focused around questions concerning the link between emotion observation (using bodily expressions of emotion) and action observation/preparation, as well as investigating variability typically observed in TMS outcome measures. After obtaining my PhD degree, I moved to Paris where I started a post-doc position in the lab of Catherine Tallon-Baudry.