Feeling good doesn’t just lift our mood—it also helps us stay flexible and resilient. A new study by an international team of neuroscientists shows that natural brain opioids released after rewards play a key role in broadening attention, offering fresh insights into stress, cognition, and well-bein…

PhD candidate Mengxu Zhang (Division of Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy) published a comprehensive and important review on “The potential impact of CYP and UGT drug-metabolizing enzymes on brain target site drug exposure” in Drug Metabolism Reviews.

Part of our social contact is currently online, with no physical proximity. Does digitalisation mean that we are losing an effective way of making contact with one another? This is what Reinoud Kaldewaij will be studying with a Veni subsidy from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). 'An issue that will…

Hunter-gatherers acquire their food through complex gender-specific foraging techniques for a relatively stable and diverse supply of energy. New research indicates that this specialisation by boys and girls starts at a very young age. Most likely, this enabled the human species to evolve much larger…

Axite, a start-up rooted in research at Leiden University’s Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW), receives €350,000 from UNIIQ for the further development of NeuroJournal: a platform that uses an EEG headband and smartphone app to provide long-term insight into brain activity outside the laboratory.

Nanomaterials can pass much further along the food chain than was previously thought. The particles can change shape and size in each organism, enabling them to pass on to the next one in the chain. Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences discovered this accidentally when using a novel…

Psychologist Ellen de Bruijn studies the effects of hormonal fluctuations on behaviour and on the brain over a woman's life course. With an ERC Consolidator grant, she and 3 PhDs and a postdoc will further her EEG research on the different stages at which girls and women experience strong hormonal f…

The bachelor's programme in International Studies is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Ko Voskuilen was among the very first batch of students to follow the study, and Sophia Healy graduated this summer. How do they look back on their time at the university?

Conference

How you think about yourself is important for the choices you make. Adolescents are faced with choosing a study programme that will determine their future, while their self-image is still under development. Tough choice? Research by psychologist Laura van der Aar has shown that taking a training course…

When we think of ADHD, we often think of highly creative, hyperactive boys. But does this mean that girls don’t have ADHD at all?

Earning some quick money by drug trafficking, committing an act of violence or almost collapsing under performance pressure. In the four-part NeurolabNL Young vodcast young people talk openly with neuroscientists about high-risk behaviour and performance pressure. How did they find their way back?

De Raad van Advies bestaat uit leden die een binding hebben met de faculteit. Daarnaast zijn zij goed thuis in de wereld van de advocatuur, de rechterlijke macht, de overheid en het bedrijfsleven. Het faculteitsbestuur gebruikt de adviezen van de Raad van Advies bij de beleidsontwikkeling van de faculteit…

What are the often invisible cognitive consequences of multiple sclerosis? Maureen van Dam mapped these out during her doctoral research. 'People usually notice the physical symptoms, but the cognitive symptoms deserve at least as much attention.'

Since the opening of the SSH labs in the Sylvius Building, more and more researchers are starting in the state-of-the-art lab spaces. What research are they doing, and how do they like the new facilities? Read about their experiences.

Psychology teacher of the year is Evelien Broekhof. The Master Thesis Awards are for Yanna Naeije and Arian Memarpouri. Mirjam Wever wins the PhD Paper Prize; Jip Aarts wins the PhD Wild Card: Academic Citizenship. Congratulations!

Suddenly getting lost, failing to recognise family members, or forgetting words and names are well-known symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Psychologists have now discovered that the disease also manifests in more subtle ways: through the rhythm of finger tapping.

How can young people grow up successfully and contribute to the present and future society? The consortium that is researching this will receive 22 million euros within the scope of the Gravitation programme.

This academic year, seven (teams of) teachers will receive a Grassroots or Grass shoots grant. Here you can read about their projects.

PhD defence

PhD defence

What if you get excluded? Are apps against fear and stress effective? How do you keep your brain in shape? The first season of the new podcastseries ‘BreinGeheim’ is about the social contexts of adolescent development and how teens become resilient individuals. Leiden-based behavioural scientist sit…

How do you deal with bullying? How can you motivate young people? At the NeurolabNL symposium a multidisciplinary research team launched an interactive book for teachers and youth workers. This digital book offers the latest insights and plenty of useful tips and advice. Children’s Ombudsman Margrite…

Lecture, LUCL Colloquium

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

All five episodes of the first season of 'Breingeheim' are now available to listen on Spotify. The first season of the podcastseries is about the social contexts of adolescent development and how teens become resilient individuals. In every episode, a new Leiden-based behavioural scientist and an adolescent…

Lecture, Food for Thought

Prof Dr Joke Bouwstra will receive the “ Dr Saal van Zwanenberg Ereprijs” from the “Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen” on November 14 in Haarlem. Joke is awarded for her innovative contributions to the field of skin delivery science and technology. She shares the price with prof…

As part of a wish fulfilment from Make-A-Wish, Leiden University recently welcomed a very special guest. Together with her best friend, Yuliia participated in a practical session on February 24th, where they studied the brain of a calf.

When a baby is born too soon, every minute counts – and so does every decision. To reduce uncertainty in those critical moments, biopharmaceutical scientist Manchu Umarani Thangavelu dedicated her PhD to identifying molecular markers of preterm birth and neonatal infection.

What influence do children’s upbringing and education have on their world view? This is the question Professor Judi Mesman is trying to answer. For her research and public outreach activities, she has just been awarded the prestigious Stevin Prize, the highest award in the Netherlands for a researcher…

From historical understandings to new treatments: during the Public Day of the Leiden Institute for Brain & Cognition, curious visitors learned how rapidly research into brain disorders is evolving. ‘I found the neurosurgery and the research on organoids on chips particularly fascinating.’

How does our brain interpret traces of evidence? Can someone who is suffering from brain damage be held accountable for criminal offences? And should it be possible to adjust a criminal’s behaviour with deep brain stimulation? These questions were addressed during the Public Scientific Day Brein & Recht…

The new startup idea of Arko Ghosh and his colleagues at CODELAB concerns seamless brain assessments using day-to-day digital interactions. The study aims to make algorithms tuned to consumer-grade brain recordings and test the market readiness for this technology. In order to achieve this, the researchers…

Thomas Moerland studied medicine and mathematics in Leiden and has a lifelong fascination with the origins and workings of intelligence. He brought all that together in his popular science book Van IQ naar AI (From IQ to AI).

In the new video series 'The World of Linguistics', alumni and academics talk about their passion for their field. Student Aline-Priscillia is particularly curious about how language is processed in the brain.

Uncovering ageing processes in the brain and research on the use of the word ‘that’. Thanks to a Rubicon Grant, two Leiden researchers who were recently awarded their PhDs will be able to conduct research at a research institute abroad.

Neuroscientist Anne Urai has been awarded a Veni subsidy to further develop her ideas over the coming four years on how the brain makes choices. Why did she receive the award? Urai answers five questions about her Veni grant for young researchers.