My research mainly focuses on understanding the associative learning and neurobiological mechanisms underlying goal-directed and habitual behaviours. Why is it so difficult to build good habits and break bad ones? Why is this more difficult for some individuals than for others? What is the role of habits in addiction? These questions are central to my research. By finding answers to these questions, I hope we can find new ways to accelerate the formation of new habits (e.g. eating healthy, or work out regularly) and quitting bad ones (e.g. smoking, snacking).
Currently, I am working as a post-doc in Sanne de Wit's Habit Lab, studying the effect of implementation intentions on habit formation and their neural correlates.
Tim van Timmeren received his Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Radboud University in 2013. He then continued with his PhD project at the Academic Medical Center (AMC/UvA) with prof. dr. Anneke Goudriaan and dr. Ruth J. van Holst. Using functional and structural MRI methods, he investigated the neurobiological changes that accompany chronic alcohol- and gambling addiction, mainly focusing on goal-directed and habitual control, decision making and reward processing. After his PhD, he joined Sanne de Wit's Habit Lab for a post-doc at the start of 2019.