Lydia Krabbendam

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About

Lydia Krabbendam is a leading cognitive neuroscientist whose research bridges social cognition, neuroimaging, and developmental psychology. Her work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how the brain processes social information, particularly through the lens of "mentalising"—the ability to infer others' mental states. In her landmark 2009 fMRI study, Krabbendam pioneered the investigation of online mentalising, demonstrating how the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction dynamically support real-time social inference. This highly cited work (88 citations) established a methodological paradigm that has been widely adopted. Beyond this, Krabbendam has made seminal contributions to the study of psychosis and social cognition, exploring how social environments and cognitive biases interact in the development of psychotic symptoms. Her research program consistently integrates neuroimaging with behavioral measures, yielding insights into the neural underpinnings of paranoia, theory of mind deficits, and social functioning in psychiatric populations. Krabbendam's impact is reflected in her extensive publication record and her role as a professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she leads a dynamic research group. Her work continues to shape how we understand the social brain, from typical development to clinical disorders.