Vincent

My ventures into cognitive science started from a desire to tell a better story. I started out studying chemistry years ago, as I was intrigued by the existence of order in a world ruled by the second law of thermodynamics, while at the same time being too intimidated by the mathematical formalisms of physics to head into that direction. During my studies, which took place at both the University of Amsterdam and the Free University, I managed to get a better idea of the story of order. I learned about the formation of the elements, the nature of the chemical bond and the self-organization of molecules and molecular aggregates. At the top of this chain of ever-increasing complexity stood life or, as chemists like to abbreviate it, the cell.

The workings of the living cell remained my focus for some time. I followed various courses on biochemistry and molecular biology and dedicated my largest BSc internship to protein expression in photosynthetic cyanobacteria, in the lab of Hans Matthijs. During that internship and subsequent courses within a master's programme on biophysics, my awe of nature grew, as did my understanding of the story of life. There was one thing to this story, however, that I couldn't get my head around.

That thing was consciousness. I could see the first replicators emerging and I could see natural selection spewing forth great biodiversity, but I couldn't – and still can't – understand how matter produces mind. Call it writer's block, but it just seems like some magical step is necessary. Now I have no pretense of actually solving this hard problem, but the question of how to continue the story of life into the realm of the subjective intrigued me and brought me into this master's programme. This happened first through a great CSCA summer school, then through various courses on neurobiology and cognitive (neuro)science and finally through work I did at the lab of prof. dr. Cyriel Pennartz, where I joined drs. Marijn van Wingerden to investigate neuronal spiking and oscillations in orbitofrontal cortex and basically learned everything I know about brains.

In the cognitive neuroscience track, I hope to get a good understanding of the tools that are available to probe the brain, while also learning what questions (and answers!) philosophers and psychologists have come up concerning the mind. Ultimately, I would like to obtain a PhD position somewhere, pursuing any of the many research interests I have, such as addiction or social binding/love. If, as a side effect, this would lead to a grand eureka moment that allows me to tell a continuous story of how mind came to be, I will write a book about it.

Neuroscientists whose work I greatly appreciate are Antonio Damasio and Joseph LeDoux, for their work on integrating emotion in the cognitive framework and for communicating their ideas clearly to the broader audience.