Epidemiological studies associate city living with an elevated risk for several disorders of mental health, including psychosis and depression. Urban social/economic stress and exposure to environmental toxins, pollution or disease agents have been proposed to underlie this association. Interdisciplinary research combining approaches, for example from experimental neuroscience and epidemiology, are needed to unravel specific urban mechanisms that increase or decrease mental health risk. This is the aim of this research line. Relevant publications can be found here.
Lydia Krabbendam
Professor Developmental Neuropsychology
Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences
Together with my group, I study the development of social cognition (empathy, perspective taking, trust) in adolescence, and the role of the social environment in this development. We investigate these processes at the level of behaviour (questionnaires, neuropsychological tasks, observation) and the neural mechanisms (fMRI and EEG).