MARCH 2024

Continuing the consortium:
Welcome to the GUTS newsletter #2!

Dear GUTS researchers and supporters,

A lot has happened since our first newsletter at the end of last year. The support team has been preparing our annual report, initiating activities to strengthen links within and outside the consortium, and working on our dissemination plans. The data management group has started to implement all procedures for data management and organise the standard operating procedures. The various work packages have been preparing for the start of data collection: obtaining ethical approval, finalising experimental designs, adapting questionnaires for use in the target groups, harmonising the sequences for neuroimaging, piloting the whole procedure... and much more.

With so much going on at once, it is good to take a step back and reflect on what has been achieved. For me, that moment came during our annual meeting with the Deans of the Universities and the Societal Advisory Board. As I read through our annual report and listened to all the presentations, I felt truly proud to be part of this consortium. Not only because I believe that our research will have a positive impact on the lives of our young people, but also because we are building an open and supportive scientific community where we value each other's perspectives and are willing to learn from each other.

This newsletter will provide you with lots of information about the GUTS project and the consortium. We shine a spotlight on our dedicated GUTS Postdocs, share the latest news from within the consortium, offer research updates from every work package, and showcase science stories crafted by our very own GUTS community. I hope you will enjoy reading the newsletter and that it will help you to make and strengthen connections within the consortium.

Lydia Krabbendam

In this newsletter...

Meet the GUTS team
News
Research updates
Science stories
Media tips

We hope you enjoy this edition!

Meet the GUTS team

In each newsletter, we put different members of the GUTS-team in the spotlight. This newsletter we want to highlight some of our newest GUTS members.

Jalmar Teeuw

Postdoc WP4

As a postdoc in WP4, I work with data from existing cohorts, focusing on the neurobiological aspects of self-regulation and antisocial behaviors. With a background in computer science and biomedical image sciences, my focus is on the data processing and analysis part. My task is to get the most value out of the datasets available by applying existing and developing new methods to extract relevant information. Currently, I am working on deep-learning methods to construct polygenic scores to better estimate a person’s genetic liability to a particular behavior or disorder, and later this year I will be working on what the best methods are for multimodal integration of longitudinal neuroimaging data.

Fun fact: I like statistics.

Carmen-Silva Sergiou

Postdoc WP3

My postdoc position is within WP 3 High-risk Antisocial Youth. My focus is on investigating antisocial behavior, aggression, emotion regulation, and empathy, by combining fMRI, EEG, and synchronicity.

My goals for this year (do you have a minute 😉) are to provide guidance/mentorship for the 3 PhDs within WP3 (Carmen, Nick, and Lisa), set up and coordinate our data collection of 400 high-risk children, have 'keten-partners' in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht & Almere, to create a network for these high-risk children, becoming an fMRI operator, write grants for the hyper scanning EEG design that I want to implement for GUTS WP3, gaining expertise on working with youth, police, dual-brain synchronicity, and fMRI.

Fun fact: My favorite non-humans are my red cat, my axolotl, and my motorcycle ❤️. I love doing tours so if you ride yourself, let's connect!

Simone Dobbelaar

Postdoc WP2

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University in GUTS WP 2. My research focuses on the role of peer experiences in children’s and adolescents’ social and neural development, with a specific focus on behaviors such as aggression regulation, prosocial behavior, and reward processing. In the upcoming year, I will help coordinate the MRI data collection in WP2, and I can’t wait to further dive into the effects of peer relations on sociocognitive development by combining neuroimaging data with social network analyses.

Fun fact: I love strolling around bookstores (and reading the books as well) and get overly fanatic when playing 30 seconds.

Denise van der Mee

Postdoc WP1 Amsterdam

Last September I received my PhD in the field of psychophysiology. In this field of research, I have delved into the relationship between the body and mind by looking at the connection between emotions and autonomic nervous system activity. I am particularly interested in the use of these measures in daily life, specifically: can we predict how someone feels by looking at, for example, the heart rate and its variability? The use of different types of wearables and their validity therefore plays an important role in my research, but also the measurement of emotions using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Before my appointment at GUTS, I had already started as a postdoc at Lydia Krabbendam, conducting my research into exam stress among students at VU Amsterdam using wearables and EMA. In the coming year, I will focus together with colleagues on converting the findings into scientific articles and making the data publicly available via OSF. In addition, within GUTS I will be involved in the physiological data collection during the second measurement of WP1 Amsterdam and the EMA studies, both from WP1 and overarching to synchronize the data in terms of protocol and items.

Fun fact: In addition to my work in science, I am also a mother of 2 children (Ryan, almost 5, and Zoey, 3.5). In my spare time I like to knit and/or crochet, build with Lego, and play the Sims 4.

Suzanne van de Groep

Postdoc WP1 Rotterdam

My research is focused on the development of social behaviors and well-being in adolescence and its neural correlates. I am particularly interested in prosocial behaviors – behavior that benefit others, such as helping, giving, and cooperating.

Questions that keep me up at night are: how can we bridge the divide that individuals feel between themselves and distant, and to a lesser extent, close others?

My postdoc position will continue until June 2024. In the past year, my goals as a postdoc have been, amongst others, to help kick-start the project, especially in Rotterdam.

My goals and plans for my postdoc for this year are to work on ideas related to connecting intellectual humility, empathy, perspective-taking, and prosocial behaviors within GUTS.

Fun fact: My twin sister Ilse van de Groep also works as a researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam. If you run into me at a conference or somewhere else, say hi, and get a confused look instead of an enthusiastic reaction, that’s probably the reason why.

Kayla Green

Will start as Postdoc WP1 Rotterdam in 2024

During my PhD, I primarily focused on the socioeconomic and neural determinants of well-being across adolescence and young adulthood. I would like to continue with this research by focusing on how youth deal with financial worries and uncertainty about their future. In addition, I will examine attitudes toward activism and the degree of self-disclosure among youth.

First, I will have to finish my PhD, so that is my main goal for the coming weeks/month. Nevertheless, I have already begun working in the GUTS consortium. I lead the recruitment group for WP1 in which we develop a strategy to recruit and retain a diverse group of adolescents. We aim to closely monitor which recruitment strategies are effective and for which adolescents.

Two completely unrelated fun facts: Scandal is my favorite (Shonda Rhimes) series (although I’m also a huge fan of Bridgerton) and I speak Greek fluently.

NEWS

René Veenstra will give keynote at ISSBD 2024

René Veenstra will give the keynote speech at the 27th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD Conference) on June 16 – 20, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal.

‘The teenage years are a period of endless opportunities’

In the NPO Luister HUMAN podcast ‘Het Puberbrein: je Hersenen in Verbouwing’, Eveline Crone explains how the brain starts to rewire when hitting teenage years. Crone takes the chance to shed a different light on adolescence than we typically hear: young people are a source of creativity rather than being lazy and uninterested.

We need more preventive mental health support: at school, in the neighborhood and online

In an interview with de Correspondent, Arne Popma draws attention to the importance of preventive mental health support for youths. ‘We have defibrillators hanging on every street corner in the Netherlands. Many people have taken a resuscitation course. Why wouldn’t we do the same for mental health?’, explains Popma in the interview.

Inaugural Lecture Thijs Bol

Thijs Bol's inaugural lecture titled ‘De werking van willekeur. Over de rol van toeval in ongelijkheid’ will take place to mark his appointment as Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. The lecture is scheduled for May 30, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. (sharp) in the Aula of the University of Amsterdam, located in the Lutherse Kerk on Spui.

RESEARCH UPDATES

WORK PACKAGE 1.

SES and Education

WP1 Rotterdam is approaching its pilot phase at the end of March, with preparations for fMRI and EEG tasks, including adjustments to technical limitations and the optimization of scan protocols. The questionnaires, incorporating themes such as puberty and activism, are nearing completion. Efforts to collect genetic material are advancing, with ongoing discussions about how best to store it. The pilot is being carefully planned, involving master students and detailed coordination for lab visits.

In the past three months, WP1 Amsterdam secured ethical approval and is updating the protocol to split measurement sessions, aiming for more efficient data collection. After piloting, adjustments are needed for older participant questionnaires to reduce completion time. They're also finalizing task programming, ordering equipment, and organizing training sessions. The WP1 Amsterdam-specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) development is ongoing. WP1 set up VU-Amsterdam Yoda workspaces for data management and are outlining detailed data handling responsibilities.

MORE INFO

WORK PACKAGE 2.

Social networks

WP2 obtained ethical approval for their pilot study. Their efforts to engage have led to the development of an enthusiastic relationship with their recruitment sample, ensuring a solid foundation for data collection. They have also meticulously crafted a clear project timeline. Furthermore, three of their PhD candidates have completed their training and supervision plans.

MORE INFO

WORK PACKAGE 3.

Antisocial behavior

WP3 focused on specific WP3 tasks and questionnaires, and an EEG add-on for years 2 and 4. Efforts include writing grants to support the EEG pilot and task optimization. WP3 has hired a research assistant, conducted mini-pilot questionnaires, and developed WP3-specific SOPs. They're also contacting recruitment locations in Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam while creating a GUTS prescreener tailored to their WP3 inclusion criteria. Furthermore, they're assembling recruitment packages, complete with call sheets, prescreeners, flowcharts, and informational materials for recruitment locations. Additionally, the Workpackage has submitted its Medical Ethics Committee (METC) application.

MORE INFO

WORK PACKAGE 4.

Individual development

WP4 has worked on completing genetics SOPs and is working on the SOP for hormones, while engaging with labs for genotyping and analysis. They are fine-tuning an sMRI protocol and have requested access to saliva/DNA samples for genotyping, also accessing important external data. Their efforts extend to setting up compute infrastructure for sophisticated data analysis and aiding colleagues with data from legacy cohorts. Their academic contributions include preparing a review on developmental cognitive neuroscience and adding a question to the GUTS questionnaire regarding irritability. WP4 has created and finalized the GUTS project budget.

MORE INFO

SCIENCE STORIES

The Power of Creativity in Learning

Creativity is often connected to imagination; it is the ability to produce original or unusual ideas and to make something new or imaginative (Cambridge University Press, n.d.). The term tends to be linked to artistic practices such as painting, composing music, or writing poetry. But what if the act of being creative is more than an artistic one? In this post, I will argue that creativity is a multifaceted practice, that goes hand in hand with learning and the development of critical thinking skills, adaptive behavior, and exploration.

Read the full science story by Jule Schretzmeir

Expedition GUTS

Setting up a large new research project like Growing Up Together in Society (or GUTS) is pretty much like embarking on an expedition into uncharted territory, is what I discovered. In this blog, I will reveal how I have experienced this adventure so far, from the spark of curiosity that started it all until the next step we are about to undertake: starting our data collection journey.

Read the full science story by Suzanne van de Groep

MEDIA TIPS

In every newsletter, we give you a few media tips to look out for. This month: a book recommendation and an art exhibition in Schiedam.

Exhibition 'Out of poverty'
This exhibition is an invitation to look and listen to each other. What does it mean to live with too little money?

It runs from 27th of January until the 9th June 2024 in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

Humandkind: A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman

This book dismantles the assumptions of classic research on human nature that positions humans as self-interested, instead exploring how humans can use our inherently good nature to build a better society.