Publications
Attachment and Maladjustment: The Role of Effortful Control Development During Middle Childhood KU Leuven Ghent University
Oxytocin and state attachment responses to secure base support after stress in middle childhood KU Leuven
We tried to replicate the finding that receiving care increases children's oxytocin and secure state attachment levels, and tested whether secure trait attachment moderates the oxytocin and state attachment response to care. 109 children (9-11 years old; M = 9.59; SD = 0.63; 34.9% boys) participated in a within-subject experiment. After stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test), children first remained alone and then received maternal secure ...
Perceived Parental Support and Psychological Control, DNA Methylation, and Loneliness: Longitudinal Associations Across Early Adolescence KU Leuven
A broad range of factors have been associated with the development of adolescent loneliness. In the family context, a lack of parental support and high levels of parental psychological control have systematically been linked to loneliness. On the biological level, DNA methylation (which is an epigenetic process that suppresses gene expression) is believed to play a role in the development of loneliness. Specifically, high levels of DNA ...
Neurobeachin haploinsufficient mice display sex-independent alterations in cued and contextual fear conditioning KU Leuven
Neurobeachin ( NBEA ) is a cytoplasmic protein that regulates receptor trafficking, neurotransmitter and hormone secretion, as well as synaptic connectivity. Recently, hippocampus-dependent contextual extinction, the gradual decrease of a conditioned fear response to a context, was suggested to be specifically impaired in male mice with Nbea deficiency ( Nbea+/- ). The current study examines the role of sex in this effect and whether Nbea also ...