Annemieke Apergis-Schoute

I study how humans acquire emotions, in particular fear, and most importantly how to extinguish negative memories or how to have control over negative states. I did my PhD at New York University where I studied with Professor Joseph LeDoux & Professor Elizabeth Phelps, both experts on emotional learning, going from rat behaviour & electrophysiology to investigating human fear learning using fMRI and galvanic skin conductance recordings. Currently I am a postdoc with Professor Trevor Robbins focusing on the interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala during cognitive control over emotions. We also investigate how an imbalance in these functional connections can lead to a range of mental disorders such as depression and disorders related to impulsive behaviour.