Dr M. Luijten (Maartje)

I work as assistant professor at the Developmental Psychopathology group of the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University in Nijmegen. In November 2012 I received my PhD (Cum Laude) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. My dissertation was titled ‘Neurocognitive insights in nicotine addiction’, which still is one of the key topics of my research. More specifically, my program of research lies in neuroscience of substance use and addiction in adults and youth. I conduct (longitudinal) neuroimaging studies to test the validity of influential addiction models. For example, I am interested in high-risk groups and the vulnerability to develop (nicotine) dependence. I am also involved in projects testing addiction models in more real-life settings such as the Bar-lab and through the use of modern technology in daily life. With my fundamental neuroscience research I aim to provide input for intervention and prevention programs. Together with my PhD students and national and international collaborators, I conduct both experimental and neuroimaging studies to achieve this goal. For example, I contribute to the development of games to reduce smoking behaviour in youth and young adults through one of our PhD projects.
My research is funded by collaborative and personal grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Dutch Cancer Society and a small charity fund.
I am also member of the implementation team of the Healthy Brain Cohort, which is a collaboration between the Radboud University, Radboudumc and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistic. The cohort will include healthy subjects from the region of Nijmegen. Our goal is to deeply phenotype the cohort including brain imaging, biological and behavioral measures, etc. This will result in a unique research infrastructure for brain research and beyond which increases and improves research opportunities. Read more about Healthy Brain: http://www.ru.nl/english/research/vm/healthy-brain/