Martin Krentz

PhD Candidate

My general research interest surrounds the immediate impact of stress on behaviour and cognition. I am especially interested in functional brain mechanisms relating to large-scale brain network changes during rest. Additionally, I am interested in MRI/fMRI methodology in the context of functional connectivity and mid-brain imaging.

In my PhD-project I investigate changing brain- and behavioural dynamics in response to an acutely stressful event. The main focus of this work, lies on the importance of catecholaminergic modulation of brain dynamics and the resulting changes in behaviour (e.g. attention and cognitive control). My personal focus here is to investigate how fMRI based functional connectivity in a task- or rest setting adapts as a consequence of stress-induced catecholamine changes. A big part of this work, is the imaging-based investigation of different mid-brain regions (locus coeruleus & substantia nigra) to connect functional changes in these crucial catecholamine regions to wide-spread changes on a whole-brain level.

In addition, in the context of the work on these mid-brain regions, I am investigating the general accessibility of these regions with fMRI and the relative contribution of different physiological noise sources on the signal quality of derived data.

I completed a bachelor in Psychology at the University of Mannheim (Mannheim, Germany) in 2014. During that time, I had first contact with Clinical Neuropsychology in the context of a research assistant position at the Central Institute of Mental Health (Mannheim, Germany). Having developed a growing interest into the intersection between neuroscience and psychology, I moved to Groningen in the same year to pursue a research master in Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences, which I completed in 2016.

Contact

  • Kapittelweg 29
    Room 02.261
    6525 EN Nijmegen
    The Netherlands
  • Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
    Radboud University Medical Center
    P.O. Box 9101
    6500 HB Nijmegen
    The Netherlands
  • (+31) 024 36 10888
  • m.krentz@donders.ru.nl