For a long time, bird song was considered as a typical male trait. But over the last twenty years, research has shown that a lot of female songbirds sing as well. Female scientists turned out to be the key factor in these findings, amongst others from the Institute of Biology Leiden.

The Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University is home to many experts on human evolution. The following staff members are part of the Leiden Human Evolution Collective.

PhD defence

What is the effectiveness of (booklet or online) self-help programmes for people with somatic stressors and depressive symptoms? What works best for whom? How to improve motivation and adherence?

Researchers from five different discplines work together in this interdisciplinary initiative.

Predictors of work functioning in persons with multiple sclerosis

Paul Brakefield, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Institute of Biology in Leiden (IBL) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his research. He will receive 2.5 million euro to develop his research programme over a period of five years.

This is an incomplete list of scientific publications by students and staff of the Creative Intelligence & Technology MSc programme.

What is the relation between brain development and social and cognitive development across childhood, adolescence and adulthood?

The Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity (LEIDS) measures cognitive reactivity (CR) to sadness, an aspect of cognitive vulnerability to depression, conceptually similar to rumination.

This project investigates properties of quantity expressions across languages from the perspective of how quantity is represented in the human brain.

The main focus of our research programme is on adolescence, a key transitional period in human development. The programme puts emphasis on combined experimental behavioural and neural analysis of normative transitions and deviations in adolescent development.

How can pupils and students learn to get a grip on complex 'swamp situations'? Inaugural lecture in abbreviated form held by prof.dr.ir. Fred Janssen on the acceptance of the post of professor of science education at Leiden University on 19 June 2017.

Are you interested in studying the Cognitive Neuroscience research master's programme at Leiden University? Find out how to apply by following the step-by step guide in the application and admission section.

Our research examines mental health risk and resilience in young people. We do so by integrating cultural, social, cognitive and neurobiological factors and their interactions.

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition is a network that stimulates interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and expertise on topics related to brain and cognition and focuses on science valorisation and outreach. Its research members come from a broad and diverse spectrum of specialized academic…

Traditional school tests, like the Dutch CITO, largely reflect students' existing knowledge and abilities. However, dynamic testing sheds light on students' learning potential, discovered Mirjam de Vreeze in her PhD research. This approach is especially promising for children with learning challenges,…

The mycorrhizal symbiosis is among the most widespread species interactions on Earth⁠. This thesis focuses on orchid mycorrhiza, a unique mycorrhizal type that has caught scientists’ attention for centuries⁠.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-promotor: S. Bruderer

The research aims to explore the evolutionary adaptability of enzymes and the impact of temperature on protein evolution pathways, using M. tuberculosis β-lactamase BlaC as the object of study. Enzymes inherently embody a delicate balance between activity and stability, and the acquisition of new enzymatic…

Promotor: Prof.dr. E Gittenberger, Co-Promotores: C.H.J.M. Fransen, Dr. B.W. Hoeksema

The master’s specialisation Applied Cognitive Psychology prepares students for translating theory into practice. You develop all the practical and intellectual skills necessary to apply psychological knowledge to real-life problems in working environments and organisations. The aim of this master’s…

Computer scientist Tessa Verhoef received a Best Paper Award during the ‘ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility’. The paper emphasised the need for interdisciplinary research in sign language processing. The authors state that linguists and computer scientists should collaborate with…

The Developmental Psychology specialisation of the Research Master’s in Psychology offers a strong theoretical background to provide the varied knowledge-base needed for a thorough understanding of emotional and cognitive development across childhood and adolescence.

What is the role of emotion regulation in coping with interpersonal feedback?

How is structural and functional brain development related to behavioral change in cognitive-control, impulse regulation, and socio-emotional functioning?

Experience, Narrative, and Criticism in Ancient Greece pursues a new approach to ancient Greek narrative beyond the taxonomies of structuralist narratologies.

Understanding individual differences in self-regulation in boys with ODD/CD on the level of brain, cognition and behavior

In a new study, we found that when we are exposed to potential harm to the other person, it improves our automatic attentional processes to avoid harm to that person.

Do you have any questions about the master's specialisation Applied Cognitive Psychology? Please contact us.

Do you have any questions about the research master's specialisation Cognitive Neuroscience? Please contact us.

Psychoeducational Assessment, Intervention and Rehabilitation (PAIR) publishes high quality articles on theoretical and empirical research regarding psychological and psychoeducational assessment, intervention, and rehabilitation in all areas related to cognitive and socio-emotional development.

Asexual procreation in female wasps leads to an accumulation of genetic mutations, and the shrivelling of their sex organ. Leiden biologist Ken Kraaijeveld published this discovery in Evolution. His research is one of the first experimental studies into the consequences of asexual procreation.

Find out how to apply for the master's specialisation Applied Cognitive Psychology at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Cut marks on the bones of bears show that people in North-West Europe used bearskins to keep warm 300,000 years ago.

Harvesting rice from the same field, without planting new rice plants? A discovery may bring this scenario closer. Leiden scientists have discovered a gene that allows annual plants to grow after flowering, instead of dying. Publication on 13 April in Nature Plants.

Pigeons, zebra finches and parakeets. Carel ten Cate studied bird sounds. But not just that. Together with linguists from Leiden, he investigated parallels between birdsong and language. On 9 June, his farewell symposium was held to mark the end of his broad career. Well, the end? Carel ten Cate has…

Leiden evolutionary biologist Maurijn van der Zee has co-operated on an enormous international project to describe the genetic material of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. The more than 100 authors involved in the project have published their findings in the online magazine PLoS Biology.

The purpose of this programme is to join knowledge and insights from linguistics, literary analysis, and rhetoric, for the purpose of developing a set of methods for the stylistic investigation of any type of text in Dutch.

The project Advancing The European Multilingual Experience (AThEME) studied multilingualism in Europe by incorporating and combining linguistic, cognitive and sociological perspectives.

A basic income would not necessarily mean that people would work less. This is the conclusion of a series of behavioural experiments by cognitive psychologist Fenna Poletiek, social psychologist Erik de Kwaadsteniet and cognitive psychologist Bastiaan Vuyk. They also found indications that people with…

Diverse types of exoplanets such as gas giants on close-in orbits (hot Jupiters) and young massive giants on wide orbits (super Jupiters), with no analogs in the Solar System, pose challenges but also opportunities to our understanding of planet formation and evolution.

During the development of the (human) body from a single fertilized egg, organs and structures must form. The development and growth of biological forms is called morphogenesis.

Promotor: Prof. dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens

What is the relation between brain development and social and cognitive development across childhood, adolescence and adulthood?

In this project we followed children of parents with an anxiety disorder. We wanted to examine how these children develop and try to better understand why it is that some children develop fears, whilst other children do not. In this project, we mainly focus on social anxiety disorder and panic disor…

Does the public speaking anxiety that many youngsters experience originates from specific characteristics in their earlier development?