Pascal Molenberghs
I obtained my Master of Psychology degree (specialising in social- and neuropsychology) from the University of Leuven (Belgium). During my master thesis, I investigated the influence of status and power on discrimination between groups. I also did a research internship at the University of Birmingham with Prof. Glyn Humphreys, working with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and stroke patients who suffered from spatial neglect.
For my doctoral thesis (completed 2009), I worked with Prof. Rik Vandenberghe at the University of Leuven investigating attentional processes with fMRI and attentional problems with stroke patients.
After my PhD I moved to Australia to work as a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland (UQ) with Prof. Jason Mattingley at the Queensland Brain Institute. Here I investigated the neural responses involved in the perception of actions and studied links between the perception and execution of actions using fMRI. In 2011, I received a UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship and moved to the School of Psychology at UQ.
From 2015 until the end of 2017, I was a Senior Lecturer at Monash University where I was supported by a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (2015-2019) and Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellowship (2013-2015).
Since 2018, I am a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne supported by a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (2015-2019).
My lab uses a range of techniques to examine the neural processes underlying social and organisational behaviour. Our current research is focused on three domains:
1. The neuroscience of ingroup bias.
2. Theory of Mind problems in stroke patients.
3. The organisational neuroscience of leadership, stress, and workplace stress management.
For more info see: my lab website: https://goo.gl/WrKQgD or download my CV: https://goo.gl/3QZ1b8.
Address: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
For my doctoral thesis (completed 2009), I worked with Prof. Rik Vandenberghe at the University of Leuven investigating attentional processes with fMRI and attentional problems with stroke patients.
After my PhD I moved to Australia to work as a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland (UQ) with Prof. Jason Mattingley at the Queensland Brain Institute. Here I investigated the neural responses involved in the perception of actions and studied links between the perception and execution of actions using fMRI. In 2011, I received a UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship and moved to the School of Psychology at UQ.
From 2015 until the end of 2017, I was a Senior Lecturer at Monash University where I was supported by a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (2015-2019) and Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellowship (2013-2015).
Since 2018, I am a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne supported by a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (2015-2019).
My lab uses a range of techniques to examine the neural processes underlying social and organisational behaviour. Our current research is focused on three domains:
1. The neuroscience of ingroup bias.
2. Theory of Mind problems in stroke patients.
3. The organisational neuroscience of leadership, stress, and workplace stress management.
For more info see: my lab website: https://goo.gl/WrKQgD or download my CV: https://goo.gl/3QZ1b8.
Address: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Papers by Pascal Molenberghs
Imaging (fMRI). Functional neuroimaging techniques may shed light on quick, automatic responses to stimuli that happen outside of conscious awareness and are thus increasingly difficult to quantify relying only on participants’ self-reported experiences. They may further provide invaluable insight into physiological processes occurring in situations of sensitive nature, whereby participants–deliberately or not–may withhold their honest responses due to social desirability. Non-Muslim Western Caucasian participants watched short video clips of stereotypical Middle-Eastern Muslim males threatening their ingroup, offering reconciliation to the ingroup, or making a neutral statement. Threatening statements led to increased activation in the amygdala, insula,
supramarginal gyrus, and temporal lobe. Reconciliation efforts led to increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate. The results suggest that threat detection is a relatively automatic process while evaluating and responding to reconciliation offers requires more cognitive efforts. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.
stroke, important questions remain about the nature and magnitude of these difficulties, as well as
the factors that determine the magnitude of this impairment. A meta-analysis of 58 datasets
involving 2567 participants (937 with stroke, 1630 non-clinical controls) was therefore conducted.
The results indicated that three of the four core domains of social cognitive function were
significantly disrupted in people with stroke. Specifically, while the effect size for affective
empathy failed to attain significance (r = -.33), moderate to large deficits were identified for theory
of mind (r = -.44), social perception (r = -.55), and social behaviour (r = -.53). These deficits were
robust across both left and right lateralized lesions, across social cognitive assessments that differed
in their broader cognitive demands, as well as in tasks that varied in their modality of presentation.
These data are discussed in the context of broader neuropsychological models of social cognitive
function.
young people living in Western societies is increasing. Evidence
suggests the cultural dynamism of individualism may play a role
in this, but this evidence is conflicting. Here, we focus on both the
concepts of individualism and collectivism, distinguishing
between their horizontal and vertical dimensions. We examine the
influence of these dimensions on the psychological wellbeing of a
sample of 507 Australian emerging adults (aged 18–25). We found
that orientations towards vertical (but not horizontal)
individualism predicted lower levels of psychological wellbeing,
while orientations towards horizontal (but not vertical)
collectivism predicted higher psychological wellbeing. These
findings add clarity to the way in which key Western social values
play an understated role in the increasing prevalence of
psychological health problems experienced by young people
today. They also provide an understanding of how various traits
embedded within these concepts relate to psychological wellbeing.
immoral behaviour can result from three distinct types of cognitive failure: (1) problems understanding others; (2) difficulties controlling behaviour; or (3) deficits in the capacity to make appropriate emotional contributions. Each of these failures is associated with damage to
different brain regions. A more nuanced approach to the neuroscience of immoral behaviour has important implications for our understanding of immoral behaviour in a wide range of clinical groups, as well as human society more broadly.