K. Roelofs (Karin)

Professor - Behavioural Science Institute

Principal Investigator - Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging

Principal Investigator - Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour

Professor - Clinical Psychology

Chair: Experimental psychopathology

Karin Roelofs is Professor of Experimental Psychopathology at the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) and chair of the PI-group “Affective Neuroscience” at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (DCCN), Radboud University Nijmegen (RU).

She studies psychological and neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying social-motivational behavior in healthy individuals and in patients with stress-related and social-motivational disorders, such as social anxiety and aggression. She uses various brain imaging (fMRI, MEG) techniques, combined with neural stimulation (TMS, tACS) or pharmacological interventions (steroid hormones) during emotion control and decision making tasks. In addition, she studies the influence of stress on the (neural) development of emotion control in longitudinal samples, including the Nijmegen Longitudinal Study and a large police cohort.

Important research questions are: How do people regulate their emotional actions? Can we improve emotion control by administering hormones, by directly influencing brain activity or by real time biofeedback? Can we predict who will develop psychopathology on the basis of freeze and fight-or-flight tendencies in longitudinal studies? Answering these questions will eventually lead to increased insight in affective disorders and promote their early detection and treatment.

Karin Roelofs received several European grants for her research (an ERC-starting, ERC-consolidator and several collaborative Fp7 and Horizon2020 grants). In addition, she received several national grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO: VENI, VIDI, VICI and Brain & Cognition grants). Furthermore, she is a registered GZ psychologist (BIG) and cognitive behavioral therapist (VCGT).

Key publications

Bramson B, Folloni D, Verhagen L, Hartogsveld B, Mars RB, Toni I, Roelofs K. 2020. Human Lateral Frontal Pole Contributes to Control over Emotional Approach-Avoidance Actions. J Neurosci. 40(14):2925-2934. Full text
Kaldewaij R, Koch SBJ, Zhang W, Hashemi MM, Klumpers F, Roelofs K. 2019. Frontal Control Over Automatic Emotional Action Tendencies Predicts Acute Stress Responsivity. Biol Psychiatry CNII, 4(11):975-983. Full text
Hashemi MM, Gladwin TE, de Valk NM, Zhang W, Kaldewaij R, van Ast V, Koch SBJ, Klumpers F, Roelofs K. (2019). Neural Dynamics of Shooting Decisions and the Switch from Freeze to Fight. Nature Sci Rep. 9(1):4240 Full text
Roelofs, K. (2017). Freeze for Action. Neurobiological mechanisms in animal and human freezing. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 372(1718). Full text
Kalisch, ea, Roelofs, ea Kleim (2017). The resilience framework as a strategy to combat stress-related disorders. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 784–790. Full text

Publication lists

Research grants and prizes

2018 - Consolidator Grant, European Research Council (ERC-CoG). Role: Primary applicant. Title: DARE2APPROACH”: A Neurocognitive Approach to Alleviating Persistent Avoidance in Anxiety Disorders More information
2020 - NWO Crossover Grant. Role WP-leader (PI: P.Roelfsema). Title: INTENSE: Innovative Neurotechnology for Society
2017 - Horizon2020 Personalized Medicine grant. Role: Co-applicant (PI: Kalisch). Title: “DYNAMORE: Dynamic modelling of resilience More information
2013 - VICI grant from NWO: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (€1.500,000). Role: Primary applicant. Title: Police In-action. The role of freeze-fight-flight tendencies in post traumatic stress. (grant No. 016 085 354). More information
2013 - Starting grant, European Research Council (ERC-StG). Role: Primary applicant. Title: The Neural control of human Freeze-Fight-flight. (grant No. ERC-StG-2012-313749). More information

Projects

2019 - 2025 "DARE2APPROACH: A Neurocognitive Approach to Alleviating Persistent Avoidance in Anxiety Disorders." This 5-year lasting project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC-COG). It will run from Jan 2019- 2024 More information
2015 - 2021 "PIA: Police In-action: The role of freeze-fight-flight tendencies in post traumatic stress." This 5-year lasting project is funded by the NWO (VICI scheme) and involves a collaboration between the RU and the National Police. It's acronym is "PIA" and it will run from Feb 2014 until Feb 2019 at the Donders Institute, Nijmegen More information
2020 - 2027 “INTENSE: Innovative Neurotechnology for Society.” This 7-year project is funded by an NWO Crossover Grant (role WP-leader, PI: P. Roelfsema)
2017 - 2023 “BIOCHILL: Enhancing Police Performance under Stress Through Immersive Biofeedback Training.” This collaborative research program is funded by NWO (creative Industry grant) and involves a collaboration between the BSI, Police Academy, Engine Co 4, Ijsfontein, and CbusineZ More information
2017 - 2023 “DYNAMORE: Dynamic modelling of resilience. This European consortium grant is part of INTRESA (International Resilience Research Alliance) and funded by a Horizon2020 Personalized Medicine grant More information