Dr. R.M. (Renée) Visser
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group Clinical Psychology
Visiting address
- Nieuwe Achtergracht 129
Postal address
- Postbus 15933
1001 NK Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
-
Profile
I am an Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam Emotional Memory Lab at the Department of Clinical Psychology with a background in cognitive neuroscience. In my research, I combine behavioural experimentation with psychophysiological assessments and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to gain insights into the plasticity of emotional memory. In general, I am interested in how cognitive neuroscience can improve mental health care by informing psychological treatment development.
Currently, I am focusing on 1) the role of olfaction in intrusive memories of (analogue) trauma, 2) emotional memory in a network perspective of mental health disorders, and 3) affective updating of episodic memories as the result of experimental manipulations and therapeutic interventions. I have been awarded a NWO Veni grant for my project "In search of the affective engram of autobiographical memory", and the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship 2023, allowing me to spend a semester at the NIAS.
Biography
After completing a clinical master (2009, cum laude), and a research master (2010, cum laude), I did my PhD (2016, cum laude) with Prof Merel Kindt and Dr H. Steven Scholte at the University of Amsterdam. For my post-doctoral training (November 2015-August 2018) I worked with Prof Emily Holmes and Prof Rik Henson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. During this time I was gratefully supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Union. In 2020 I obtained my University Teaching Qualification (BKO).
Expertise and research fields
- Emotional learning and memory
- Experimental psychopathology
- functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Representational similarity analysis
- Intrusive memories of (analogue) trauma
- Odour memory
- Affective disorders
- Translational science
- Open science
Collaborations
- Prof Merel Kindt, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Dr Vanessa van Ast, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Prof Arnoud Arntz, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Prof Emily Holmes, Uppsala University, Sweden
- Prof Richard Henson, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Dr Martina DiSimplicio, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
- Prof Ed Tan, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands/ University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Dr Deborah Talmi, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
-
PhD supervision
- Copromotor of Faya Reinhold
- Copromotor of Jacqueline Peters
- Copromotor of Inga Marie Freund
- Other affiliations
-
Publications
2023
Freund, I. M., Peters, J., Kindt, M., & Visser, R. M. (2023). Emotional memory in the lab: Using the Trier Social Stress Test to induce a sensory-rich and personally meaningful episodic experience. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 148, [105971]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105971 [details]- Visser, R. M., & Arntz, A. (2023). A faulty compass: Why do some people choose situations that are not good for them? Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 78, [101793]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101793 [details]
2022
- Bas-Hoogendam, J. M., Veltman, D. J., & ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group (2022). ENIGMA-anxiety working group: Rationale for and organization of large-scale neuroimaging studies of anxiety disorders. Human Brain Mapping, 43(1), 83-112. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25100
- Filmer, A. I., Peters, J., Bridge, L. A., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). Over the Edge: Extending the duration of a reconsolidation intervention for spider fear. Translational Psychiatry, 12, [261]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02020-x [details]
- Freund, I. M., Arntz, A., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). Jumping back onto the giants’ shoulders: Why emotional memory should be considered in a network perspective of psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 156, [104154]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104154 [details]
- Peters, J., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). More than just fear: Development and psychometric evaluation of the Spider Distress Scale to assess spider fear and spider-related disgust. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 90, [102602]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102602 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Henson, R. N., & Holmes, E. A. (2022). A Naturalistic Paradigm to Investigate Postencoding Neural Activation Patterns in Relation to Subsequent Voluntary and Intrusive Recall of Distressing Events. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 7(10), 960-969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.08.006 [details]
2021
- Undeger, I., Visser, R. M., Becker, N., de Boer, L., Golkar, A., & Olsson, A. (2021). Model-based representational similarity analysis of blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI captures threat learning in social interactions. Royal Society Open Science, 8(11), [202116]. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202116 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Bathelt, J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2021). Robust BOLD Responses to Faces But Not to Conditioned Threat: Challenging the Amygdala's Reputation in Human Fear and Extinction Learning. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 41(50), 10278-10292. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021
- Visser, R. M., Bathelt, J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2021). Robust BOLD Responses to Faces But Not to Conditioned Threat: Challenging the Amygdala’s Reputation in Human Fear and Extinction Learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(50), 10278-10292. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Bathelt, J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2021). Robust BOLD Responses to Faces but Not to Conditioned Threat: Challenging the Amygdala’s Reputation in Human Fear and Extinction Learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(50), 10278-10292. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021
2020
- Undeger, I., Visser, R. M., & Olsson, A. (2020). Neural Pattern Similarity Unveils the Integration of Social Information and Aversive Learning. Cerebral Cortex, 30(10), 5410-5419. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa122 [details]
2019
- Iyadurai, L., Visser, R. M., Lau-Zhu, A., Porcheret, K., Horsch, A., Holmes, E. A., & James, E. L. (2019). Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application. Clinical Psychology Review, 69, 67-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.08.005 [details]
2018
- Goodwin, G. M., Holmes, E. A., Andersson, E., Browning, M., Jones, A., Lass-Hennemann, J., Månsson, K. N. T., Moessnang, C., Salemink, E., Sanchez, A., van Zuthphen, L., & Visser, R. M. (2018). From neuroscience to evidence based psychological treatments – The promise and the challenge, ECNP March 2016, Nice, France. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 28(2), 317-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2017.10.036 [details]
- Sevenster, D., Visser, R. M., & D'Hooge, R. (2018). A translational perspective on neural circuits of fear extinction: Current promises and challenges. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 155, 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2018.07.002 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Lau-Zhu, A., Henson, R. N., & Holmes, E. A. (2018). Multiple memory systems, multiple time points: How science can inform treatment to control the expression of unwanted emotional memories. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, 373(1742), [20170209]. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0209 [details]
- de Haan, M. I. C., van Well, S., Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., van Wingen, G. A., & Kindt, M. (2018). The influence of acoustic startle probes on fear learning in humans. Scientific Reports, 8, [14552]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32646-1 [details]
2017
- Holmes, E. A., Ghaderi, A., Eriksson, E., Olofsdotter Lauri, K., Kukacka, O. M., Mamish, M., James, E. L., & Visser, R. M. (2017). “I can’t concentrate”: A feasibility study with young refugees in Sweden on developing science-driven interventions for intrusive memories related to trauma. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 45(2), 97-109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135246581600062X [details]
2016
- James, E. L., Lau-Zhu, A., Clark, I. A., Visser, R. M., Hagenaars, M. A., & Holmes, E. A. (2016). The trauma film paradigm as an experimental psychopathology model of psychological trauma: intrusive memories and beyond. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 106-142.
- Visser, R. M., Haver, P., Zwitser, R. J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2016). First steps in using multi-voxel pattern analysis to disentangle neural processes underlying generalization of spider fear. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, [222]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00222 [details]
- Visser, R. M., de Haan, M. I. C., Beemsterboer, T., Haver, P., Kindt, M., & Scholte, H. S. (2016). Quantifying learning‐dependent changes in the brain: Single trial multivoxel pattern analysis requires slow event related fMRI. Psychophysiology, 53(8), 1117-1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12665 [details]
2015
- Visser, R. M., Kunze, A. E., Westhoff, B., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2015). Representational similarity analysis offers a preview of the noradrenergic modulation of long-term fear memory at the time of encoding. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 55, 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.01.021 [details]
2013
- Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., Beemsterboer, T., & Kindt, M. (2013). Neural pattern similarity predicts long-term fear memory. Nature Neuroscience, 16(4), 388-390. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3345 [details]
2012
- van Well, S., Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2012). Neural substrates of individual differences in human fear learning: evidence from concurrent fMRI, fear-potentiated startle, and US-expectancy data. Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(3), 499-512. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-012-0089-7 [details]
2011
- Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2011). Associative learning increases trial-by-trial similarity of BOLD-MRI patterns. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(33), 12021-12028. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2178-11.2011 [details]
2010
- Nomura, E. M., Gratton, C., Visser, R. M., Kayser, A., Perez, F., & D'Esposito, M. (2010). Double dissociation of two cognitive control networks in patients with focal brain lesions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(26), 12017-12022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1002431107 [details]
2020
- Visser, R. M. (2020). Why do certain moments haunt us? Conceptualizing intrusive memories as conditioned responses. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 5(4), 375-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.02.007 [details]
2020
- Holmes, E. A., Espinosa, L., Visser, R. M., Bonsall, M. B., & Singh, L. (2020). Psychological Interventions as They Relate to Intrusive Thinking: Intrusive, Emotional Mental Imagery after Traumatic and Negative Events. In P. W. Kalivas, & M. P. Paulus (Eds.), Intrusive Thinking: From Molecules to Free Will (pp. 287-314). (Strüngmann Forum Reports). MIT Press. [details]
- Visser, R. M., Anderson, M. C., Aron, A., Banich, M. T., Brady, K. T., Huys, Q. J. M., Monfils, M-H., Schiller, D., Schlagenhauf, F., Schooler, J., & Robbins, T. W. (2020). Neuropsychological Mechanisms of Intrusive Thinking. In P. W. Kalivas, & M. P. Paulus (Eds.), Intrusive Thinking : From Molecules to Free Will (pp. 124-184). (Strüngmann Forum Reports). The MIT Press. https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jonathan/publications/2011 [details]
This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list. -
Ancillary activities
No ancillary activities
Freund, I. M., Peters, J., Kindt, M., & Visser, R. M. (2023). Emotional memory in the lab: Using the Trier Social Stress Test to induce a sensory-rich and personally meaningful episodic experience. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 148, [105971].