With the 2024 Flux Congree behind us, the Flux Trainee Committee is excited to introduce you to some of your conference peers via our trainee research profiles. If you are a trainee (student, post-bacc, postdoc) and would like to be featured, please fill out our interest form.
At Flux, we are committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers who are shaping the future of developmental cognitive neuroscience. In our new Trainee Spotlight series, we will highlight the achievements, aspirations, and contributions of outstanding trainees within our community. These young scientists are not only pushing the boundaries of research but also embodying the spirit of collaboration and innovation that drives our field forward.
Today, we are excited to introduce Lotte van Rijn. Let's dive into their journey, insights, and what motivates them to make a lasting impact in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
Lotte van Rijn
Graduate Student, Erasmus University Rotterdam
What is the focus of your research?
Within my research I investigate the developmental patterns of delay discounting. As part of my research, we developed a new social delay discounting paradigm that allows us to investigate how we learn to balance decisions not only for now and later, but also for ourselves and others. We aim to investigate how individual differences such behavior arise, and how these patterns relate to outcomes in later life.
What is your most interesting research finding so far?
In my first paper, we analyzed the behavioral and neural patterns of our novel social delay discounting paradigm. Our preliminary findings suggest that when a delayed reward could benefit another instead of the self, less delay discounting is observed. Such decisions involving other individuals as the delay-beneficiary show brain activation in both control and social regions, where social region activation did not differentiate between the social targets. Additionally, activation in control regions was differentially activated for different social targets depending on choice.
What do you enjoy doing when not researching?
Cooking and enjoying dinner with my friends and family.
Best piece of advice you have received as a trainee:
To learn as you go, and try new things that can help you find out what you like and want.
Do you have any advice for early-stage trainees?
Although I still consider myself one, it helps me to focus on my own development and growth and not compare myself to others. Everyone has their own strengths.
Most useful resource you would recommend to other trainees:
Not necessarily useful but definitely fun: flaticon for nice brain icons to use in your presentations and posters.
Where can people learn more about your work at flux?
You can find my poster in poster session 2 as SU23!