Melle J.W. van der Molen, PhD

Principal Investigator

I am an assistant professor in Clinical Neurodevelopmental Psychology at Leiden University and principal investigator at the CoDAP lab. My work lies at the intersection between developmental cognitive neuroscience and clinical psychology. A key denominator of my work is employing a multi-method approach - combining behavioral and neuroimaging assessments, as well as advanced statistical methods. I aim at discovering reliable transdiagnostic markers that will aid in understanding the etiology of psychological disorders

Biosketch and CV

Elise Kortink, MSc

Ph.D. candidate

I am a PhD candidate for the Developmental and Educational Psychology at Leiden University and enthusiastic member of the CoDAP lab. My PhD project (i.e., the Changing Minds project), funded by an NWO Research Talent grant, aims to identify subgroups of people, characterized by similarities in personality, environmental, physiological and behavioral responses in various social contexts. These subgroups, or ‘symptom-profiles’ should help indicate who is at risk for developing social anxiety disorder in adolescence. I am particularly interested in examining potential differences in a brain mechanism involved during social learning and behavioral responses to uncertain social situations.

Hanjie Liu, MSc

Ph.D. candidate

I am a Ph.D. candidate for the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit at Leiden University and a member of the CoDAP lab. I received my MSc in developmental psychopathology from Durham University and a BSc in mathematics from Purdue University. My Ph.D. project focuses on investigating the functional brain network changes during reinforcement learning in socially anxious individuals. I am interested in using machine learning methods to examine this learning process and I hope to provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the cognitive biases in social anxiety.

Selin Topel, MSc

Collaborator

I am a research collaborator in the CoDAP lab and a PhD candidate in the Clinical Psychology unit at Leiden University. I received my M.Sc. (Research) in Developmental Psychology from Leiden University and hold a B.A. in Psychology from Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. In the CoDAP lab, I work on the Changing Minds project, and I am interested in understanding the mechanisms involved in feedback processing and learning in social evaluative contexts. As part of the interdepartmental Social Resilience and Security Program, my PhD project - co-supervised by Prof. Ellen de Bruijn, Dr. Anna van Duijvenvoorde, and Dr. Henk van Steenbergen - will focus on the relationship between resilience, uncertainty, and cognitive flexibility.

Ruya Akdag, MSc

Research Assistant & Lecturer

I am a research assistant for the CoDAP lab. I received my research master's degree in Cognitive neuroscience from Leiden University. My previous line of research was centered around social anxiety and especially its psychophysiological underpinnings during emotion processing. I am excited to continue this line of work in the CoDAP lab. I will work on the Changing Minds project where I will further examine the physiological and neurological mechanisms underlying social anxiety in feedback processing. Furthermore, I am interested to examine individual differences between socially anxious individuals based on behavioral, contextual, and personality traits to better understand the different profiles of social anxiety.

Sanyogita Khare BSc

Thesis student

I am a research master student in the Developmental Psychology track at Leiden University. I received my BSc in Psychology (specialization Educational and Developmental Psychology) from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Currently, I am working on my master thesis within the Changing Minds project. I am primarily interested in how psycho-social factors can affect the neural mechanisms that play a role in adolescent development and well-being. Therefore, I will be investigating how trait-level rejection sensitivity may interact with experiences of peer victimization to shape how adolescents process and learn from negative social-evaluative feedback.

Louise van de Breevaart BSc

Thesis student

I am a  student from the Clinical Adolescent Psychology Master at Leiden University and I am carrying out my master thesis project within the Changing Minds project. My research interests include the fields of Clinical Neuropsychology and Developmental Psychology. The Changing Minds project allows me to study the neurophysiological and behavioral effects of performance-related feedback in people with different levels of social anxiety. 

Kalina Nikolova BSc

Research Intern

I am a Clinical Neuropsychology master's student at Leiden University and I am fascinated by all mind and brain interactions. Generally, I am interested in psychophysiological methods in examining abnormalities in cognitive processes that contribute to the development and reinforcement of maladaptive behaviors and emotional distress disorders. In line with this, during my time in CoDAP Lab, I will explore neural responses to social evaluative feedback in relation to social anxiety.