My name is Jacobien van Peer. I did my PhD (cum laude, December 2009) at Leiden University (NL), followed by a post-doc at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences in Geneva (CH). Since 2012 I’m an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Psychology and the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, and a research associate at the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging.
My research focuses on motivational processes, specifically emotional information processing and action tendencies, and the neurobiological and brain mechanisms underlying these processes and their role in psychopathology and maladaptive behaviour. By combining EEG with behavioural assessments and hormone interventions in healthy and clinical samples, I and my co-workers have shown that the hormones cortisol and testosterone affect early processing of socially threatening information as well as approach and avoidance tendencies, which may play an important role in social anxiety. I also combined EEG with peripheral psychophysiological measures to investigate the role of appraisal processes in emotional responses. Currently I’m investigating emotional action control in threatening situations, and specifically how stress and fatigue affect performance under threat.
Selected publications:
Van Peer, J. M., Gladwin, T. E., & Nieuwenhuys, A. (2019). Effects of threat and sleep deprivation on action tendencies and response inhibition. Emotion, 19(8), 1425–1436. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000533
Coutinho, E., Gentsch, K., van Peer, J.M., Scherer, K. R., & Schuller, B.W. (2018). Evidence of emotion-antecedent appraisal checks in electroencephalography and facial electromyography. PloS one 13(1), e0189367. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189367
Van Peer, J.M., Enter, D.*, van Steenbergen, H., Spinhoven, Ph., & Roelofs, K. (2017). Exogenous testosterone affects early threat processing in socially anxious and healthy individuals. Biological Psychology, 129, 82-89. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.08.003
Van Peer, J.M., Grandjean, D., & Scherer, K.R. (2014). Sequential Unfolding of Appraisals: EEG Evidence for the Interaction of Novelty and Pleasantness. Emotion.
Van Peer, J.M., Spinhoven, Ph., & Roelofs, K. (2010). Psychophysiological evidence for cortisol-induced reduction in early bias for implicit social threat in social phobia. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Van Peer, J.M., Spinhoven, Ph., van Dijk, J.G., Roelofs, K. (2009). Cortisol-induced enhancement of emotional face processing in social phobia depends on symptom severity and motivational context. Biological Psychology.
Van Peer, J.M., Roelofs, K., & Spinhoven, Ph. (2008). Cortisol administration enhances the coupling of midfrontal delta and beta oscillations. International Journal of Psychophysiology.
Van Peer, J.M., Roelofs, K., Rotteveel, M., van Dijk, J.G., Spinhoven, Ph., & Ridderinkhof, K.R.(2007). The effects of cortisol administration on approach-avoidance behavior: An event-related potential study. Biological Psychology.
Putman, P., van Peer, J.M., Maimari, I., & van der Werff, S. (2010). EEG theta/beta ratio in relation to fear-modulated response-inhibition, attentional control, and affective traits. Biological Psychology.
Roelofs, K., van Peer, J.M., Berretty, E., de Jong, P., Spinhoven, Ph.,& Elzinga, B.M. (2009). Hypothalamus-pituitary- adrenal axis hyperresponsiveness is associated with increased social avoidance behavior in social phobia. Biological Psychiatry.
Roelofs, K., Minelli, A., Mars, R., van Peer, J.M., & Toni, I. (2009). On the neural control of social emotional behavior. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Tops, M., van Peer, J.M., Wester, A.E., Wijers, A.A., & Korf, J. (2006). State-dependent regulation of cortical activity by cortisol: An EEG study. Neuroscience letters.