Michelle Achterberg

Dr. Michelle Achterberg is an Assistant Professor in Youth & Family Studies at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. She leads the SO-REBEL Research team studying social rejection in the brain and everyday life, with affiliations to Leiden University's Developmental and Educational Psychology department and the SYNC lab.

• Education: Bachelor's in Psychology, Research Master's in Neuroscience
• Affiliations: Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID), Healthy Start Young Board

Her research integrates Developmental Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience to examine how children and adolescents regulate emotions during social rejection, focusing on neural mechanisms and resilience factors in both online and offline contexts. Current projects include interdisciplinary investigations of hyperconnected youth using neuroimaging, surveys, and co-creation methods.

The articles reveal trends in studying digital-age social development, with subfields spanning neural networks, behavioral responses to exclusion, and neuroimaging techniques applied to adolescent populations. Research emphasizes connectivity patterns, cognitive control, and societal implications of social evaluation.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Dutch Neurofederation PhD Award (2021)
  • VNOP Dissertation Award (2021)
  • Erasmus Research Prize (2022)
  • KHMW JC. Ruigrok Prize (2023)

As principal investigator, she organizes interdisciplinary meetings funded by the KNAW Early Career Partnership grant (€10,000) and received Veni grants for early-career research. Her lab (YNC lab) collaborates with societal stakeholders to bridge fundamental research and practical applications.