The general aim of the Sleep & Trauma research group is to apply cognitive neuroscience to come to a more profound understanding of psychiatric disease and to develop novel, theory-driven treatments. Specifically, we focus on the role of sleep and sleep-dependent memory processes in the etiology and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We translate recent neuroscientific findings on memory augmentation during sleep (targeted memory reactivation, TMR) to the patient-level in an aim to increase therapeutic effectiveness of existing psychotherapeutic treatments. We use polysomnography and neuroimaging techniques to elucidate the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. In addition, several other innovative sleep-focused interventions are tested in trauma-related and personality disorders in a general aim to open up sleep as a new treatment window in psychiatry. Within the projects, we collaborate closely with the Neuropsychiatry team at AUMC (PI, Odile van den Heuvel), the Memory and sleep lab at UvA (PI, Lucia Talamini) and the Van Someren group at NIN (PI Eus van Someren). Projects are executed at GGZ inGeest and ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre.

Team members

dr. Hein van Marle Principal Investigator
Shanna van Trigt PhD student
Ploon de Potter PhD student
dr. Stefan Jongejan Postdoc
Dori Ivanyi Research assistant