As a clinical neuroscientist my focus lies on studying the pathophysiology of brain disorders and to study the efficacy of new non-pharmacological treatments. I use various neuroimaging techniques such as SPECT and structural and functional MRI to investigate the pathophysiology of brain disorders. A major theme of my research is the investigation of the neural correlates of non-motor symptoms (e.g. depression and cognitive impairments) in Parkinson’s disease. I have also been involved in a clinical trial on the efficacy of bright light therapy for depression in Parkinson disease, and am currently the PI on a study on the efficacy of cognitive training for Parkinson’s disease (COGTIPS). I’m also involved as MRI expert in an international study on the brain correlates of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OBS), population-based studies on the factors that influence the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (using Generation R data) and in clinical trials on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TIPICCO) and cognitive behavioral therapy (ArrIBA) for obsessive-compulsive disorder and cognitive behavioral therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PROSPER) where pre- and post-intervention MRI are acquired to study the working mechanism of the treatment and predict outcome. Apart from supervising the PhD students on these various trials, my goal for the coming years is to explain and predict the successful outcome of these non-pharmacological treatments across brain disorders and treatments.

Brain Disorders

- Parkinson's disease

- Obsessive-compulsive disorder

- Post-traumatic stress disorder

 Neuroimaging techniques

- Structural T1-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

- functional MRI (fMRI)

- Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI)

- Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)

- (functional) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)

Neuromaging analysis

- task-based fMRI analysis

- Morphometry and structural covariance analysis

- network analysis of DWI and fMRI (static and dynamic networks)

- dopamine transporter availability analysis based on SPECT