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What does ONWAR mean to you, personally or professionally?

During my 1st ONWAR retreat in November 1999 (it was 2 weeks after I started my PhD project) I met a 4th year PhD student studying the thalamus; we had a chat during the break and became friends. Both the PhD student and the thalamus are still very central in my life. Without the ONWAR retreat Ysbrand van der Werf and me would have never met. We started a research group together after my PhD: he with postdoc experience on TMS and me with my first own money (VENI, incorporating his TMS experience). Now, more than 25 years later we still lead the group together and this TMS work is at the core of our group. The thalamus appeared to be very relevant for my work as well (this hub region of the brain plays a central role in my VICI project). I strongly believe in the strength of multidisciplinary research. To build strong connections, it is important to spend time together and that’s what we did since that 1st ONWAR PhD retreat. 

What motivated you to become involved with ONWAR? 

My PhD project, formally embedded in the Department of Psychiatry (and involving patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder), but in close collaboration with the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience (for functional anatomy expertise) and the Departments of Radiology (for MRI work) and Nuclear Medicine (for PET work), a strong basis in neuroscience seemed the best way to start building the bridge between my own background in Medicine and the large field of neuroscience. 

What do you hope to bring to ONWAR in your new role? 

My main goal is to contribute to a stronger bridge between pre-clinical and clinical researchers by giving the new generation neuroscientists a solid basis in translational communication: so on the one hand the clinicians need some help swallowing the sometimes hard to follow neuroscience methods, on the other hand the pre-clinical researchers can learn to talk about their methods and approaches in a more educational way. I hope that we can modify and also add some courses where these translational aspects form the core of the course and I hope that we can facilitate multidisciplinary and translational communication during the ONWAR retreats. Currently, Jake Westenberg (NIN) and me create a brand-new course on Cognitive Neuroscience, planned in the first week of November. Every half day we cover a domain of cognition, where a speakers couple (1 pre-clinical scientist and 1 clinician and/or applied scientist) cover that domain related to specific clinical phenotypes or disorders. In the end I hope that new research couples (like Ysbrand and me) start their groups on the crossroad of disciplines. I am convinced that new innovations often appear on the border of expertises and that ONWAR is the idea playground to feel that. It will also facilitate team science and work pleasure. 

What opportunities do you see for closer collaboration between neuroscientists and psychiatrists? 

Many. There are so many opportunities to translate new discoveries to innovative treatments and the other way around to ask pre-clinical researchers help us towards answers to burning clinical questions. In my own field we see that one topic that is relevant for many psychiatric and neurological diseases, and approachable by various methods and at multiple scales, is plasticity of the brain. The understanding of neuroplasticity across the lifespan (both in neurodevelopmental disorders and in neurodegenerative or neurovascular disorders) and under the influence of treatment (training, medication, neuromodulation, lifestyle, etc) and other environmental factors is crucial for innovation of mental health care. 

What advice would you give PhD students when it comes to mental well-being?

Be open in your communication with people around you: listen to others and listen to yourself. Learn to be aware of both your strengths and your weaknesses, so that you can learn to become resilient in a fast-changing world. Most important for your PhD time is to see it as a phase in life to learn and to grow. It is not about production, about success, about speed. It is about creativity, deep interest in the matter of study, the open-minded curiosity to unexpected findings, it is about team work. During my PhD, I started an ‘intervision group’: we met each 6 weeks and used those nights to build a strong friendship and to help each other in finding our way in the complex eco system that is academia. Now, 25 years later, we still meet every 6 weeks and we still help each other.