The topic “brain” seems to be everywhere at the moment. Not strange as the brain is responsible for all your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. You are your brain!
Science is more and more able to decipher this brain, with newly developed brain scanning devices and complex computer algorithms. Reading thoughts, decoding dreams, predicting whether you will become a great football player or not. Everything is possible! Or is it…? Of all these wonderful ideas and innovations, some remarks and promises are reasonable, but others aren’t. How do you know the difference?
In a society, brains and brain research rightfully get a lot of attention, it is of growing importance to take care that this attention is focused on the right things. Where the media doesn’t always have the opportunity or resources to elaborate on “brain news”, science should jump in. We would like to offer you the opportunity to learn about the brain. Therefore, we will regularly present the newest brain research on this website from all over the world, in an accessible and scientifically responsible way. Brainmatters has won several Dutch national prizes and appeared on Dutch radio and TV.
About us The project Brainmatters started as a submission to the Academic Year Competition 2011. Job van den Hurk, Tom de Graaf en Michelle Moerel, all (previous) researchers of the Faculty of Neuroscience and Psychology of Maastricht University founded the website and continued to run it. In 2022 they decided to hand it over to a new group of researchers and students in neuroscience that love to share their passion and knowledge with you. We introduce them below.
Do you have questions or want to get involved? We are looking for enthousiastic students who want to contribute to Brainmatters in any way, shape, or form. Whether you want to write an article, help with social media, make visuals, or become part of the BrainMatters team. We'd love to hear from you! You can reach us via: contact.brainmatters@gmail.com
Lotte Smit
Lotte is a scientific project manager of dementia research at VU Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC. She has a masters degree in Molecular Neuroscience and a passion for nutrition, the gut-brain axis, and naturally, cooking.
Pauline van Gils
Pauline is a teacher in clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam. She obtained a doctorate in neuropsychology at the University of Maastricht and the University of Twente.
Joyce Burger
Joyce is a PhD student at the VU Amsterdam, specializing in motor learning and motivation in high school students. She finished a research master in Cognitive & Clinical Neuropsychology in Maastricht.
Thomas von Rein
Thomas is an alumnus of the Brain and Mind Sciences master’s programme at UCL. A regular writer for the site, he also contributes to managing the work of guest writers. He has a great interest in research into topics such as the functions of dopamine, and furthering our understanding of consciousness.
Zuzanna is a recent Neuropsychology master’s graduate at Maastricht University. Her main research interests involve studying psychedelic substances and sensory processing in the brain through non-invasive brain imaging techniques, such as (f)MRI.
Old members Anneke Terneusen Loes Beckers Kobus Lampe Svet Mangarakov Melanie Smekal
Regular contributors Kenzo Le Vaillant Jennifer Morael Pablo de Chambrier Aisha Humaira Waldi
Our Database
Want to know more?
In the database you can find information on a large collection of terms used in neuroscience.
