Introduction
I completed a BSc in biophysics and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. I stayed at Radboud University for a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, at the Donders Institute. I moved to Oxford in 2020 where I have taken up several postdocs at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA) at the Department of Psychiatry. Since 2025 I’ve been a Fellow at Queen’s.
Teaching
I organise, design, and teach annual multi-day workshops on neurophysiology and the analysis of magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) data. These workshops are for students and peers (up to senior staff) who want to learn advanced analysis of M/EEG data, including preprocessing, source reconstructions, statistics and modelling of brain network dynamics. I currently also supervise four graduate (DPhil) students.
Research
Every thought, memory, and decision we make relies on the ability of different parts of the brain to work together in connected networks. We know a lot about which brain areas form these networks, but far less about how activity in these networks is coordinated in time. To answer this question, I develop methods for analysing brain activity data, particularly MEG and EEG. My tools span preprocessing, source modelling, statistics, and brain network modelling and are publicly available. With these tools I try to understand how the dynamics organization of large-scale brain networks supports cognition, and how their properties can be used for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
In my recent work, I have discovered that brain networks follow recurring cycles of activity, lasting a few hundred milliseconds. Analogous to sleep cycles, these “brain network cycles” are the first concrete evidence that brain networks activate following a clock-like timing, which may be the brain’s mechanism to coordinate cognitive functions. I now aim to investigate what drives these cycles and how they influence behaviour.
In another strand of research, I aim to identify biomarkers of brain disorders from M/EEG data, including network properties. For example, I have recently shown that network markers are more sensitive to Alzheimer’s than conventional approaches, indicating their clinical potential.
Publications
A full list of my publications can be found here