Laura Steenbergen
Assistant Professor
- Name
- Dr. L. Steenbergen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 3875
- l.steenbergen@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-2659-4981
From both a personal and professional point of view, I am pursuing the Human Potential. As a species, humans have always relied on their adaptability and intelligence in order to survive. It seems that all humans, regardless of their country, culture, or race, have a natural tendency to grow, develop, and learn. My aim is to enhance and optimize (cognitive) performance in healthy and safe ways, which should help in dealing with the demands of our environment, as such contributing to well-being and happiness.
Research
From July 2014 to June 2016, I worked as a PhD student at Leiden University under the supervision of Prof. dr. Lorenza Colzato and Dr. Roberta Sellaro on the topic of Cognitive Enhancement. As part of my doctoral research, I spent one month in the Actionlab led Prof. dr. Christian Beste at the Technical University of Dresden. On the 16th of June 2016, I successfully defended my PhD thesis and received my doctorate. From June 2016 to June 2017, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Cognitive Psychology Unit of Leiden University investigating the relation between body composition, heart rate variability, and cognitive control. Between June 2017 and June 2018, supported by an Amsterdam Brain and Cognition talent grant and an amazing group of talented students, I set up research at the University of Amsterdam and the Academic Medical Centre in order to further investigate gut-brain interactions and how these affect cognition and well-being. From May to August 2018, I visited the Emotions and Quantitative Psychophysiology lab led by Prof. dr. Julian Thayer at the Ohio State University. As of August 2018, supported by an NWO Veni grant, I am back in Leiden to investigate how the vagal nerve relates to cognitive- and affective processing and how gut bacteria influence physiological processes, our brains, and subsequent behavior, and how we may use that to enhance our well-being. For the work I have done so far, I was recently awarded the Young Scientist award from the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
I love sharing my experience, knowledge, and ideas, and giving people food for thought! For example, in 2017/2018, together with Coen Verbraak, Patrick van Hees, and Jan Kuipers, I performed in a number of theaters in the Netherlands as part of our theater lecture series "Op Zoek naar Geluk".
A combination of these outreach and scientific efforts resulted in me ending up in the top 25 'New Scientist Wetenschapstalent' election from the Dutch New Scientist.
Grants
The research I am currently conducting is funded by a Veni grant received from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO; 2018), a Talent Grant from Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (2017), and a public-private Enabling Technologies Hotels grant from ZonMw (2017).
Do you want to know more about me and/or my work? Check out my personal website www.LauraSteenbergen.com
Assistant Professor
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Instituut Psychologie
- Klinische Psychologie
- Maraver M.J., Steenbergen L., Hossein R., Actis-Grosso R., Ricciardelli P., Hommel B. & Colzato L.S. (2020), Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation modulates attentional resource deployment towards social cues, Neuropsychologia 143: 107465.
- Steenbergen L., Cona G., Colzato L.S. & Maraver M.J. (2020), Vagal signaling and the somatic marker hypothesis: The effect of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation on delay discounting is modulated by positive mood, International Journal of Psychophysiology 148: 84-92.
- Hutten N.R.P.W., Steenbergen L., Colzato L.S., Hommel B., Theunissen E.L., Ramaekers J.G. & Kuypers K.P.C. (2019), Cocaine enhances figural, but impairs verbal ‘flexible’ divergent thinking, European Neuropsychopharmacology 29(7): 813-824.
- Colzato L.S., Steenbergen L. & Hommel B. (2020), Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general, Psychological Research 84: 204-216.
- Colzato L., Steenbergen L. & Hommel B. (2020), Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general, Psychological Research (84): 204-216.
- Leonte A., Colzato L., Steenbergen L., Hommel B. & Akyürek E.G. (2018), Supplementation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) affects temporal, but not spatial visual attention, Brain and Cognition 120: 8-16.
- Colzato L., Ritter S.M. & Steenbergen L. (2018), Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) enhances divergent thinking, Neuropsychologia 111: 72-76.
- Colzato L.S., Jongkees B.J., De Wit M., Van der Molen M.J. & Steenbergen L. (2018), Variable heart rate and a flexible mind: Higher resting-state heart rate variability predicts better task-switching, Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 18(4): 730-738.
- Jongkees B.J., Steenbergen L. & Colzato L.S. (2017), Color vision predicts processing modes of goal activation during action cascading, Cortex 94: 123-130.
- Colzato L.S. & Steenbergen L. (2017), High vagally mediated resting-state heart rate variability is associated with superior action cascading, Neuropsychologia 106: 1-6.
- Steenbergen L. & Colzato L. (2017), Overweight and cognitive perfomance: High body mass index is associated with impairment in reactive control during task switching, Frontiers in Nutrition 4: e51.
- Colzato L.S., Steenbergen L. & Sellaro R. (2017), The effect of gamma-enhancing binaural beats on the control of feature bindings, Experimental Brain Research 235(7): 2125-2131.
- Steenbergen L. (16 June 2016), Cognitive enhancement : toward the integration of theory and practice (PhD thesis. Institute of Psychology, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): S.T. Nieuwenhuis, L.S. Colzato, R. Sellaro.
- Beste C., Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Grigoriadou S., Zhang R., Chmielewski W. & Colzato L. (2016), Effects of concomitant stimulation of the GABAergic and Norepinephrine system on inhibitory control - A study using Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Brain Stimulation 9(6): 811-818.
- Colzato L.S., Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Stock A.K., Arning L. & Beste C. (2016), Effects of L-Tyrosine on working memory and inhibitory control are determined by DRD2 genotype: A randomized controlled trial, Cortex 82: 217-224.
- Stock A.K., Steenbergen L., Colzato L. & Beste C. (2016), The system neurophysiological basis of non-adaptive cognitive control: Inhibition of implicit learning mediated by right prefrontal regions, Human Brain Mapping 37(12): 4511-4522.
- Steenbergen L., Jongkees B.J., Sellaro R. & Colzato L.S. (2016), Tryptophan supplementation modulates social behavior: A review, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 64: 346-358.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Hommel B., Kühn S. & Colzato L.S. (2016), "Unfocus" on foc.us: Commercial tDCS headset impairs working memory, Experimental Brain Research 234(3): 637-643.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Stock A.K. & Beste C. Colzato L.S. (2015), Action video gaming and cognitive control: Playing first person shooter games is associated with improved action cascading but not inhibition, PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144364.
- Steenbergen L, Sellaro R., Van Hemert S., Bosch J.A. & Colzato L.S. (2015), A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cogitive reactivity to sad mood, Brain, Behavior and Immunity 48: 258-264.
- Kuypers K.P.C., Steenbergen L., Theunissen E.L., Toennes S.W. & Ramaekers J.G. (2015), Emotion recognition during cocaine intoxication, European Neuropsychopharmacology 25(11): 1914-1921.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., De Rover M., Hommel B. & Colzato L.S. (2015), No role of beta receptors in cognitive flexibility: Evidence from task-switching paradigm in a randomized controlled trial, Neuroscience 295: 237-242.
- Sellaro R., Steenbergen L., Verkuil B., Van IJzendoorn M. & Colzato L.S. (2015), Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) does not increase prosocial behavior in cyberball, Frontiers in Psychology 6: e499.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Stock A.K., Verkuil B., Beste C. & Colzato L.S. (2015), Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) enhances response selection during action cascading processes, European Neuropsychopharmacology 25(6): 773-778.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Hommel B. & Colzato L.S. (2015), Tyrosine promotes cognitive flexibility: Evidence from proactive vs. reactive control during task switching performance., Neuropsychologia 69: 50-55.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R., Stock A.K., Beste C. & Colzato L.S. (2015), y-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration improves action selection processes: A randomised controlled trial, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 5: e12770.
- Steenbergen L., Sellaro R. & Colzato L.S. (2014), Tryptophan promotes charitable donating, Frontiers in Psychology 5: e1451.
- Christoffels I.K., De Haan A.M., Steenbergen L., Van den Wildenberg W.P.M. & Colzato L.S. (2015), Two is better than one: Bilingual education promotes the flexible mind, Psychological Research 79(3): 371-379.
- Colzato L.S., Steenbergen L., De Kwaadsteniet E.W., Sellaro R., Liepelt R. & Hommel B. (2013), Tryptophan promotes interpersonal trust, Psychological Science 24(12): 2575-2577.
- Publieke lezingen
- Voorzitter bestuur