School for Mental Health and Neuroscience

The School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNs) strives to advance our understanding of brain-behaviour relationships by using an approach integrating various disciplines in neuro- and behavioural science, medicine, and the life sciences. MHeNs performs high-impact neuroscience research and educates master's students and PhD researchers. MHeNs performs translational research, meaning practical collaboration between researchers in the lab and in the hospital .

Fast facts

three research divisions
coordinator of large European research networks
focused on the development of new therapies
from fundamental neuroscience to applied neuropsychiatric strategies
led by Dr. D. Linden

MHeNs website

Research

To perform research at every level, from the cellular to human, MHeNs is organised into three research lines:

Cognitive Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience – generates new insights into the neurocognitive and neurobehavioural mechanisms in order to improve treatment and care for people with cognitive disorders and other neurological disorders
Mental Health – focusses on the mechanisms through which interactions between individuals and their environments contribute to the development of mental disorder and the impact of mental health services on morbidity
Neuroscience – uncovers the underlying mechanisms of neurodegenerative and regenerative processes to improve health and to provide solutions to cure neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Depression, Movement Disorders and Pain

Education

MHeNs is involved in the curricula of several international master's and research master's programmes of both the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences and the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. Internships for students are offered on a broad range of topics within the field of mental health and basic neuroscience. They are also offered independently of the master programme.

26 MHENS v1-HD.mp4

Frans Verhey

“Alzheimer was traditionally seen as one uniform concept, but its heterogeneity is now increasingly recognized. In addition, Alzheimer is closely related to various aging mechanisms. This opens new targets for treatment that were ignored so far.”

Read a Dutch interview with Frans Verhey

Thérèse van Amelsvoort

"We aim to understand the etiology of mental disorders by using dimensional approaches applied to ecological, psychological and biological systems. This offers opportunities to develop more individualized treatments and accurate predictive markers that could improve an individual’s quality of life".

Read a Dutch interview with Thérèse van Amelsvoort

Jos Prickaerts

“Our aim is to come up with innovative preventions, diagnoses and treatments for disorders of the nervous system. For this purpose we invest in an innovative research environment to study and unravel the biological and pathological mechanisms from the level of the gene up to behaviour“.

Read a Dutch interview with Jos Prickaerts

Center for Integrative Neuroscience launched
Wednesday, March 21, 2018

CIN new interfaculty cooperation for Integrative Neuroscience launched

Read more
Rubicon grants for two UM researchers
Friday, April 21, 2017

Sandra Schipper and Mark van den Hurk, who both took their PhD in December 2016, received a Rubicon grant from research financing institution NWO. This grant gives young, highly promising researchers the opportunity to gain international research experience

Read more
Explorer of the brain
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Read more