Dr. R.M. (Renée) Visser
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group Clinical Psychology
Area of expertise: Emotional learning and memory, Experimental psychopathology, fMRI, Intrusive mental imagery, Odour memory, Autobiographical memory, Sense of self, Affective disorders, Translational science
Visiting address
- Nieuwe Achtergracht 129
Postal address
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Postbus 15933
1001 NK Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
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Profile
I am an Associate Professor in the Amsterdam Emotional Memory Lab at the Department of Psychology. As a cognitive neuroscientist working in clinical psychology, I use behavioural experimentation and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate mechanisms underlying the dynamics of emotional (autobiographical) memory.
Biography
After completing a clinical master (2009, cum laude), and a research master (2010, cum laude), I did my PhD (2016, cum laude) with Prof Merel Kindt and Dr H. Steven Scholte at the University of Amsterdam. For my post-doctoral training (November 2015-August 2018) I worked with Prof Emily Holmes and Prof Rik Henson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. During this time I was gratefully supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Union. In 2018 I returned to Amsterdam as an assistant professor. In 2023 I was awarded the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship 2023, allowing me to spend a semester at the NIAS. My research is supported by personal grants from NWO (Veni; Vidi) and an NWO consortium grant (NSMD).
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Research
Currently, I have different research strands focusing on 1) the modification of emotional episodic memory, 2) developing novel experimental approaches to modelling episodic memories with high personal relevance, 3) qualities and mechanisms of intrusive thoughts, and 4) the role of olfaction in memory retrieval and episodic memory binding. Parallel to empirical studies, I am developing a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between emotional autobiographical memory, sense of self, and mental health.
Recently, I have been awarded an NWO Vidi grant to develop a research framework that connects neuroscientific insights on the plasticity of single event memories with theories of autobiographical memory. I am specifically interested in the role of emotion and time in the transformation of memory networks. Eventually, I aim to understand how memories work together to create the stories of our lives.
Unfortunately, I do not have capacity to take on internship students for the 2025/2026 academic year from outside our own psychology master programs, nor to supervise self-funded PhD students. Any available PhD positions will be advertised via Academic Transfer.
Current collaborations
- Prof Merel Kindt, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Dr Vanessa van Ast, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Prof Arnoud Arntz, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Prof Anita Jansen, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- Prof Anne Roefs, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- Dr Martina DiSimplicio, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
- Prof Antje Horsch, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Prof Miquel Fullana, Clinic Barcelona, Spain
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PhD/ post doc supervision
- Copromotor and primary supervisor of Linos Vossoughi
- Copromotor and primary supervisor of Eline de Vries
- Copromotor and primary supervisor of Floris Tijhuis
- Copromotor of Faya Reinhold
- Copromotor of Inga Marie Freund
- Copromotor of Mona Klau
- Former copromotor of Dr Jacqueline (Jack) Peters, now post doc at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
I am currently (co-)supervising PhD candidates investigating mechanisms of intrusive thoughts (Linos Vossoughi; Eline de Vries), emotional memory and sleep (Faya Reinhold), emotional memory in a network perspective of mental health disorders (Inga Marie Freund), network models of insomnia (Mona Klau), and the formation of autobiographical memory networks (Floris Tijhuis).
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Administrative roles and affiliations
Current administrative roles
- Research Master Psychology track coordinator
- Member of the Research Master Psychology curriculum committee
- Member of the Research Master Psychology learning trajectories committee
- Course coordinator Scientific Writing and Presenting (research master psychology)
- Member of the educational committee of the Dutch-Flemish Postgraduate school for Experimental Psychopathology research (EPP)
Previous
- Member/ chair of the department's Diversity and Inclusivity committee (2021-2025)
- Course coordinator Mood Anxiety and Psychotic Disorders (bachelor psychology; 2020-2025)
- Course coordinator 'Cognitieve functiestoornissen' (bachelor psychology; 2018-2020)
- Master thesis coordinator (2018-2020)
- Member of Master thesis Revision committee (2018-2019)
Other affiliations
- Plasticity, Memory & Language (PML) ambassador for Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC)
- Dutch-Flemish Postgraduate school for Experimental Psychopathology research (EPP)
- Young talent on NWO Gravitation grant ‘New Science of Mental Disorders’ (NSMD)
- ENIGMA-Anxiety and ENIGMA-fear conditioning working groups.
- NIAS-KNAW Fellow, autumn '23/'24
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Publications
- refereed (31)
- academic (1)
- professional (2)
- conference contributions (1)
- supervised theses (2)
- doctoral thesis (1)
2025
Freund, I. M., Peters, J., van Emmerik, A. A. P., Kindt, M., & Visser, R. M. (2025). Expanding the toolset of experimental Psychopathology: The Trier Social Stress Test induces a personally relevant emotional memory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 191, Article 104783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2025.104783 [details]- Peters, J., Filmer, A. I., van Doorn, J. B., Metselaar, V. N., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2025). Re-encountering the phobic cue within days after a reconsolidation intervention is crucial to observe a lasting fear reduction in spider phobia. Molecular Psychiatry, 30(6), 2729-2738. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02882-1 [details]
- Peters, J., van Wonderen, A., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2025). The Act of Measurement: The Influence of Behavioural Tests on Spider Fear and Disgust. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 47(3), Article 62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-025-10234-8 [details]
- Radua, J., Beckers, T., Kindt, M., Visser, R. M., & Fear conditioning (2025). Neural correlates of human fear conditioning and sources of variability in 2199 individuals. Nature Communications, 16(1), Article 7869. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63078-x [details]
2024
- Duken, S. B., Neumayer, F., Dzinalija, N., Kindt, M., van Ast, V. A., & Visser, R. M. (2024). Can neutral episodic memories become emotional? Evidence from facial expressions and subjective feelings. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 177, Article 104528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2024.104528 [details]
- Hilbert, K., Kindt, M., Visser, R., Veltman, D. J., & ENIGMA Anxiety Working Group (2024). Cortical and Subcortical Brain Alterations in Specific Phobia and Its Animal and Blood-Injection-Injury Subtypes: A Mega-Analysis From the ENIGMA Anxiety Working Group. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 181(8), 728-740. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230032 [details]
- Peters, J., Freund, I. M., Kindt, M., Visser, R. M., & van Emmerik, A. A. P. (2024). Convergence of real-time and retrospective assessments: A systematic investigation of naturally occurring and experimentally induced intrusions. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 85, Article 101981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101981 [details]
2023
- Freund, I. M., Peters, J., Kindt, M., & Visser, R. M. (2023). Emotional memory in the lab: Using the Trier Social Stress Test to induce a sensory-rich and personally meaningful episodic experience. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 148, Article 105971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105971 [details]
- Visser, R. M., & Arntz, A. (2023). A faulty compass: Why do some people choose situations that are not good for them? Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 78, Article 101793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101793 [details]
2022
- Bas-Hoogendam, J. M., Groenewold, N. A., Aghajani, M., Freitag, G. F., Harrewijn, A., Hilbert, K., Jahanshad, N., Thomopoulos, S. I., Thompson, P. M., Veltman, D. J., Winkler, A. M., Lueken, U., Pine, D. S., van der Wee, N. J. A., Stein, D. J., & ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group (2022). ENIGMA-anxiety working group: Rationale for and organization of large-scale neuroimaging studies of anxiety disorders. Human Brain Mapping, 43(1), 83-112. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25100 [details]
- Filmer, A. I., Peters, J., Bridge, L. A., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). Over the Edge: Extending the duration of a reconsolidation intervention for spider fear. Translational Psychiatry, 12, Article 261. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02020-x [details]
- Freund, I. M., Arntz, A., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). Jumping back onto the giants’ shoulders: Why emotional memory should be considered in a network perspective of psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 156, Article 104154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104154 [details]
- Peters, J., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2022). More than just fear: Development and psychometric evaluation of the Spider Distress Scale to assess spider fear and spider-related disgust. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 90, Article 102602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102602 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Henson, R. N., & Holmes, E. A. (2022). A Naturalistic Paradigm to Investigate Postencoding Neural Activation Patterns in Relation to Subsequent Voluntary and Intrusive Recall of Distressing Events. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 7(10), 960-969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.08.006 [details]
2021
- Undeger, I., Visser, R. M., Becker, N., de Boer, L., Golkar, A., & Olsson, A. (2021). Model-based representational similarity analysis of blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI captures threat learning in social interactions. Royal Society Open Science, 8(11), Article 202116. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202116 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Bathelt, J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2021). Robust BOLD Responses to Faces But Not to Conditioned Threat: Challenging the Amygdala’s Reputation in Human Fear and Extinction Learning. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(50), 10278-10292. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 [details]
2020
- Undeger, I., Visser, R. M., & Olsson, A. (2020). Neural Pattern Similarity Unveils the Integration of Social Information and Aversive Learning. Cerebral Cortex, 30(10), 5410-5419. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa122 [details]
2019
- Iyadurai, L., Visser, R. M., Lau-Zhu, A., Porcheret, K., Horsch, A., Holmes, E. A., & James, E. L. (2019). Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application. Clinical Psychology Review, 69, 67-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.08.005 [details]
2018
- Goodwin, G. M., Holmes, E. A., Andersson, E., Browning, M., Jones, A., Lass-Hennemann, J., Månsson, K. N. T., Moessnang, C., Salemink, E., Sanchez, A., van Zuthphen, L., & Visser, R. M. (2018). From neuroscience to evidence based psychological treatments – The promise and the challenge, ECNP March 2016, Nice, France. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 28(2), 317-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2017.10.036 [details]
- Sevenster, D., Visser, R. M., & D'Hooge, R. (2018). A translational perspective on neural circuits of fear extinction: Current promises and challenges. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 155, 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2018.07.002 [details]
- Visser, R. M., Lau-Zhu, A., Henson, R. N., & Holmes, E. A. (2018). Multiple memory systems, multiple time points: How science can inform treatment to control the expression of unwanted emotional memories. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, 373(1742), Article 20170209. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0209 [details]
- de Haan, M. I. C., van Well, S., Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., van Wingen, G. A., & Kindt, M. (2018). The influence of acoustic startle probes on fear learning in humans. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 14552. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32646-1 [details]
2017
- Holmes, E. A., Ghaderi, A., Eriksson, E., Olofsdotter Lauri, K., Kukacka, O. M., Mamish, M., James, E. L., & Visser, R. M. (2017). “I can’t concentrate”: A feasibility study with young refugees in Sweden on developing science-driven interventions for intrusive memories related to trauma. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 45(2), 97-109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135246581600062X [details]
2016
- James, E. L., Lau-Zhu, A., Clark, I. A., Visser, R. M., Hagenaars, M. A., & Holmes, E. A. (2016). The trauma film paradigm as an experimental psychopathology model of psychological trauma: intrusive memories and beyond. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 106-142.
- Visser, R. M., Haver, P., Zwitser, R. J., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2016). First steps in using multi-voxel pattern analysis to disentangle neural processes underlying generalization of spider fear. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, Article 222. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00222 [details]
- Visser, R. M., de Haan, M. I. C., Beemsterboer, T., Haver, P., Kindt, M., & Scholte, H. S. (2016). Quantifying learning‐dependent changes in the brain: Single trial multivoxel pattern analysis requires slow event related fMRI. Psychophysiology, 53(8), 1117-1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12665 [details]
2015
- Visser, R. M., Kunze, A. E., Westhoff, B., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2015). Representational similarity analysis offers a preview of the noradrenergic modulation of long-term fear memory at the time of encoding. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 55, 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.01.021 [details]
2013
- Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., Beemsterboer, T., & Kindt, M. (2013). Neural pattern similarity predicts long-term fear memory. Nature Neuroscience, 16(4), 388-390. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3345 [details]
2012
- van Well, S., Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2012). Neural substrates of individual differences in human fear learning: evidence from concurrent fMRI, fear-potentiated startle, and US-expectancy data. Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(3), 499-512. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-012-0089-7 [details]
2011
- Visser, R. M., Scholte, H. S., & Kindt, M. (2011). Associative learning increases trial-by-trial similarity of BOLD-MRI patterns. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(33), 12021-12028. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2178-11.2011 [details]
2010
- Nomura, E. M., Gratton, C., Visser, R. M., Kayser, A., Perez, F., & D'Esposito, M. (2010). Double dissociation of two cognitive control networks in patients with focal brain lesions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(26), 12017-12022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1002431107 [details]
2020
- Visser, R. M. (2020). Why do certain moments haunt us? Conceptualizing intrusive memories as conditioned responses. Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 5(4), 375-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.02.007 [details]
2020
- Holmes, E. A., Espinosa, L., Visser, R. M., Bonsall, M. B., & Singh, L. (2020). Psychological Interventions as They Relate to Intrusive Thinking: Intrusive, Emotional Mental Imagery after Traumatic and Negative Events. In P. W. Kalivas, & M. P. Paulus (Eds.), Intrusive Thinking: From Molecules to Free Will (pp. 287-314). (Strüngmann Forum Reports). MIT Press. [details]
- Visser, R. M., Anderson, M. C., Aron, A., Banich, M. T., Brady, K. T., Huys, Q. J. M., Monfils, M-H., Schiller, D., Schlagenhauf, F., Schooler, J., & Robbins, T. W. (2020). Neuropsychological Mechanisms of Intrusive Thinking. In P. W. Kalivas, & M. P. Paulus (Eds.), Intrusive Thinking : From Molecules to Free Will (pp. 124-184). (Strüngmann Forum Reports). The MIT Press. https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jonathan/publications/2011 [details]
2023
- Peters, J., Filmer, A. I., van Doorn, J. B., Metselaar, V. N., Visser, R. M., & Kindt, M. (2023). 102. A Reconsolidation Intervention for Spider Phobia: Re-Encountering the Feared Situation After Treatment is Crucial to Initiate Cognitive Changes in Fear. https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(23)00416-X/fulltext
2025
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Ancillary activities
No ancillary activities
Freund, I. M., Peters, J., van Emmerik, A. A. P., Kindt, M., & Visser, R. M. (2025). Expanding the toolset of experimental Psychopathology: The Trier Social Stress Test induces a personally relevant emotional memory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 191, Article 104783.