Emese Kroon
Postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam
About me
Welcome to my website! My name is Emese Kroon and I work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. My research focusses on the multitude of internal (e.g. cognition, mental health, gender) and external (e.g. social interactions, culture) factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of substance use disorders, with a primary focus on cannabis use disorder. In my projects I try to integrate a variety of measures – from questionnaires to fMRI data – and analytical methods to explore the individual differences that contribute to these complex disorders.
Research interests
Cannabis
Most of my research focusses on heavy cannabis use and cannabis use disorder. In recent projects we assessed:
- Gender differences in symptom endorsement, mental health, cognitive performance, and brain activity
- The role of cannabis attitudes – in the US and NL – in the association between cannabis use and brain activity
- The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on motives to use cannabis, cannabis use related problems, and mental health
- The role of attentional bias and craving in cannabis use, and whether cognitive control affects these assocations
Other substances
My other projects have focussed on alcohol and to a lesser extend nitrous oxide use, both commonly used by adolescents:
- We developed a social attunement questionnaire and task to assess the effects of individual tendencies to adapt to peers on alcohol use
- We assessed how different social settings affect individuals’ willingness to drink alcohol and whether peer feedback has an effect on this willingness
- We reviewed the existing literature of nitrous oxide use to assess whether nitrous oxide is an addictive substance according to DSM-5 criteria
Measurement
In my research, I try to intergrate different types of measurements and use a variety of analytical methods including:
- Assessing the associations between hair-derived cannabinoid concentrations and self reported cannabis use
- Using resting state and task-based fMRI to assess the neural underpinnings of cannabis use disorder
- Developing experimental tasks and questionnaires to assess social influence of peers
- Using network analyses to explore interactions between symptoms to look beyond diagnoses
Ideas for collaboration?
The best research might come from the most unexpected collaborations! Hence, I am always open to new ideas and projects.
Any ideas for collaborations? Feel free to send me an email!