Freek van Ede is a cognitive neuroscientist, studying how human cognition works and how cognitive processes are implemented in the brain. In 2014, he obtained his PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Oxford on a Marie Curie fellowship and a Newton Fellowship for five years. In 2020, he returned to the Netherlands, establishing his own research line at VU Amsterdam with an ERC Starting Grant. Most recently, in 2023, he received a Vidi grant from NWO to further expand his research.
Cognitive neuroscience investigates how thought processes work in the brain and how we can use brain scans to better understand them. ‘Our research is mainly fundamental,’ explains Van Ede. ‘Using healthy participants, we want to better understand how cognitive functions work that underpin human cognition and behaviour. An important part of our work is to develop tasks and methods to investigate cognitive functions in a new and thorough way.’
Van Ede is the principal investigator of the Proactive Brain Lab. Together with his team, he studies the proactive brain, that is, how the human brain prepares for upcoming goal-directed behaviour. ‘We are specifically interested in the role of working memory, which not only holds onto the past but actually prepares us for the future,’ Van Ede explains. We can see something now but react to it later, which makes us capable of flexible behaviour. Working memory can activate and transform relevant information at the right time. ‘Think, for example, of remembering where your teammates are in a sports match to pass the ball to them later, or remembering information on a road sign to take the right turn later.’
An important aspect of his research is measuring internal cognitive processes, such as how we activate and modify certain memories, which is tricky because these processes take place internally. ‘We have found that one way we can do this is by measuring very small eye movements, called microsaccades,’ Van Ede explains. These eye movements provide an accurate way of seeing how the brain focuses on visual information in working memory. ‘This has a lot of potential because it allows us to track relevant internal processes very precisely over time - and thus in dynamic contexts - including also in moving subjects for example in a VR environment.’
Looking ahead, Van Ede sees particular opportunities in further investigating cognitive processes in moving subjects. ‘In everyday life, cognitive processes often take place while we are in motion, for example, while cycling through a busy city. We want to understand this better,’ he says. He also wants to look deeper into how different cognitive processes work together to enable effective behaviour. Van Ede: ‘In our field, we often study one cognitive component at a time, trying to keep all other cognitive components equal. But in everyday life, cognitive processes often work together, and it is likely that different processes do not function alongside each other but influence each other and work together.’
Van Ede considers his inclusion on the Scientists to Watch list a great honour. ‘Precisely because a list like this, like the human cognition we study, is ‘looking forward’. It is not only a recognition of our research in recent years, but also a belief in the potential of our research questions and research approaches for the years to come.’ In addition, Van Ede appreciates the fact that this will bring his research to a wider audience. ‘If it can excite a few to dive deeper into our research field, it would be a great bonus,’ Van Ede concludes.
Take a look at all ten Scientists to Watch on the website of Science News. Here you can also read more on the research of Freek van Ede.