Dr Ans Vercammen
Senior Research Fellow
School of Communication and Arts
Researcher biography
I obtained my first degree in Psychology (Experimental & Theoretical) from Ghent University in Belgium and completed a Ph.D. in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Groningen. Following a postdoc at NeuRa in Sydney and a few years lecturing on psychology at the Australian Catholic University, I chose to shift my research focus to environmental issues, and how they affect individual and collective human health and wellbeing. I gained experience with grassroots commmunity conservation projects as a volunteer and completed the interdisciplinary MSc in Conservation Science at Imperial College London in 2016. I was a researcher at Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College from 2017-2021. My research is now broadly focused on the human dimensions of environmental change, with a particular interest in how people (emotionally) connect with nature, determinants of pro-environmental behaviour, the health and wellbeing benefits of nature exposure and the mental health impacts of climate change.
Book Chapters
Aleman, André and Vercammen, Ans (2013). The “bottom-up” and “top-down” components of the hallucinatory phenomenon. The neuroscience of hallucinations. (pp. 107-121) edited by Renaud Jardri, Arnaud Cachia, Pierre Thomas and Delphine Pins. New York, NY, United States: Springer New York. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-4121-2_6
Aleman, André and Vercammen, Ans (2012). Functional neuroimaging of hallucinations. Hallucinations: research and practice. (pp. 267-281) edited by Jan Dirk Blom and Iris E.C. Sommer. New York, NY, United States: Springer New York. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0959-5_20
Journal Articles
Fraser, Hannah, Bush, Martin, Wintle, Bonnie C., Mody, Fallon, Smith, Eden T., Hanea, Anca M., Gould, Elliot, Hemming, Victoria, Hamilton, Daniel G., Rumpff, Libby, Wilkinson, David P., Pearson, Ross, Singleton Thorn, Felix, Ashton, Raquel, Willcox, Aaron, Gray, Charles T., Head, Andrew, Ross, Melissa, Groenewegen, Rebecca, Marcoci, Alexandru, Vercammen, Ans, Parker, Timothy H., Hoekstra, Rink, Nakagawa, Shinichi, Mandel, David R., van Ravenzwaaij, Don, McBride, Marissa, Sinnott, Richard O., Vesk, Peter ... Fidler, Fiona (2023). Predicting reliability through structured expert elicitation with the repliCATS (Collaborative Assessments for Trustworthy Science) process. PLoS One, 18 (1) e0274429, 1-16. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274429
Marcoci, Alexandru, Vercammen, Ans, Bush, Martin, Hamilton, Daniel G., Hanea, Anca, Hemming, Victoria, Wintle, Bonnie C., Burgman, Mark and Fidler, Fiona (2022). Reimagining peer review as an expert elicitation process. BMC Research Notes, 15 (1) 127, 127. doi: 10.1186/s13104-022-06016-0
Burgman, Mark, Chiaravalloti, Rafael, Fidler, Fiona, Huan, Yizhong, McBride, Marissa, Marcoci, Alexandru, Norman, Juliet, Vercammen, Ans, Wintle, Bonnie and Yu, Yurong (2022). A toolkit for open and pluralistic conservation science. Conservation Letters, 16 (1) e12919. doi: 10.1111/conl.12919
Pirkle, Lucy T., Jennings, Neil, Vercammen, Ans and Lawrance, Emma L. (2022). Current understanding of the impact of climate change on mental health within UK parliament. Frontiers in Public Health, 10 913857, 1-13. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.913857
Lawrance, Emma L, Jennings, Neil, Kioupi, Vasiliki, Thompson, Rhiannon, Diffey, James and Vercammen, Ans (2022). Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: an online survey study. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6 (9), e726-e738. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00172-3
Agnello, Gaia, Vercammen, Ans and Knight, Andrew T. (2022). Understanding citizen scientists’ willingness to invest in, and advocate for, conservation. Biological Conservation, 265 109422, 109422. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109422
Vercammen, Ans, Marcoci, Alexandru and Burgman, Mark (2021). Pre-screening workers to overcome bias amplification in online labour markets. PLoS One, 16 (3), e0249051. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249051
Lawrance, Emma, Jennings, Neil, Kioupi, Vasiliki, Thompson, Rhiannon, Diffey, James and Vercammen, Ans (2021). Young Persons’ Psychological Responses, Mental Health and Sense of Agency for the Dual Challenges of Climate Change and a Global Pandemic. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3847782
Thiermann, Ute B., Sheate, William R. and Vercammen, Ans (2020). Practice matters: pro-environmental motivations and diet-related impact vary with meditation experience. Frontiers in Psychology, 11 584353. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.584353
Dietsch, A. M., Wallen, K. E., Clayton, S., Kretser, H. E., Kyle, G. T., Ma, Z. and Vercammen, A. (2020). Introduction: New directions in conservation psychology at a critical time. Conservation Biology, 34 (6), 1335-1338. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13629
Vercammen, Ans, Park, Caroline, Goddard, Robyn, Lyons-White, Joss and Knight, Andrew (2020). A Reflection on the Fair Use of Unpaid Work in Conservation. Conservation & Society, 18 (4), 399-404. doi: 10.4103/cs.cs_19_163
Vercammen, Ans and Burgman, Mark (2019). Untapped potential of collective intelligence in conservation and environmental decision making. Conservation Biology, 33 (6), 1247-1255. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13335
Reeves, Jonathan P., Knight, Andrew T., Strong, Emily A., Heng, Victor, Neale, Chris, Cromie, Ruth and Vercammen, Ans (2019). The Application of Wearable Technology to Quantify Health and Wellbeing Co-benefits From Urban Wetlands. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01840
Vercammen, Ans, McGowan, Jennifer, Knight, Andrew T., Pardede, Shinta, Muttaqin, Efin, Harris, Jill, Ahmadia, Gabby, Estradivari,, Dallison, Thomas, Selig, Elizabeth and Beger, Maria (2019). Evaluating the impact of accounting for coral cover in large-scale marine conservation prioritizations. Diversity and Distributions, 25 (10) ddi.12957, 1564-1574. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12957
Marcoci, Alexandru, Burgman, Mark, Kruger, Ariel, Silver, Elizabeth, McBride, Marissa, Thorn, Felix Singleton, Fraser, Hannah, Wintle, Bonnie C., Fidler, Fiona and Vercammen, Ans (2019). Better Together: Reliable Application of the Post-9/11 and Post-Iraq US Intelligence Tradecraft Standards Requires Collective Analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02634
Marcoci, Alexandru, Vercammen, Ans and Burgman, Mark (2019). ODNI as an analytic ombudsman: is Intelligence Community Directive 203 up to the task?. Intelligence and National Security, 34 (2), 205-224. doi: 10.1080/02684527.2018.1546265
Vercammen, Ans, Ji, Yan and Burgman, Mark (2019). The collective intelligence of random small crowds: A partial replication of Kosinski et al. (2012). Judgment and Decision Making, 14 (1), 91-98. doi: 10.1017/s1930297500002941
Sinclair, Samuel P., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Smith, Robert J., McIntosh, Emma J., Possingham, Hugh P., Vercammen, Ans and Knight, Andrew T. (2018). The use, and usefulness, of spatial conservation prioritizations. Conservation Letters, 11 (6) e12459, e12459. doi: 10.1111/conl.12459
Bais, Leonie, Liemburg, Edith, Vercammen, Ans, Bruggeman, Richard, Knegtering, Henderikus and Aleman, André (2017). Effects of low frequency rTMS treatment on brain networks for inner speech in patients with schizophrenia and auditory verbal hallucinations. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 78, 105-113. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2017.04.017
Ji, E., Weickert, C. S., Lenroot, R., Kindler, J., Skilleter, A. J., Vercammen, A., White, C., Gur, R. E. and Weickert, T. W. (2016). Adjunctive selective estrogen receptor modulator increases neural activity in the hippocampus and inferior frontal gyrus during emotional face recognition in schizophrenia. Translational Psychiatry, 6 (5) e795, 1-9. doi: 10.1038/tp.2016.59
Willis, Megan L., Murphy, Jillian M., Ridley, Nicole J. and Vercammen, Ans (2015). Anodal tDCS targeting the right orbitofrontal cortex enhances facial expression recognition. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10 (12), 1677-1683. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsv057
Vercammen, Ans, Knegtering, Henderikus, Bruggeman, Richard, Westenbroek, Hanneke M., Jenner, Jack A., Slooff, Cees J., Wunderink, Lex and Aleman, André (2015). Corrigendum to "Effects of bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on treatment resistant auditory-verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial" [Schizophr. Res. 114 (1-3) (October 2009) 172-179]. Schizophrenia Research, 168 (1-2) 6496, 599-600. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2015.06.024
Ji, Ellen, Weickert, Cynthia Shannon, Lenroot, Rhoshel, Catts, Stanley V, Vercammen, Ans, White, Christopher, Gur, Raquel E and Weickert, Thomas W (2015). Endogenous testosterone levels are associated with neural activity in men with schizophrenia during facial emotion processing. Behavioural Brain Research, 286, 338-346. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2015.03.020
Weickert, T. W., Weinberg, D., Lenroot, R., Catts, S. V., Wells, R., Vercammen, A., O'Donnell, M., Galletly, C., Liu, D., Balzan, R., Short, B., Pellen, D., Curtis, J., Carr, V. J., Kulkarni, J., Schofield, P. R. and Weickert, C. S. (2015). Adjunctive raloxifene treatment improves attention and memory in men and women with schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 20 (6), 685-694. doi: 10.1038/mp.2015.11
Skilleter, A. J., Weickert, C. S., Vercammen, A., Lenroot, R. and Weickert, T. W. (2015). Peripheral BDNF: A candidate biomarker of healthy neural activity during learning is disrupted in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 45 (4), 841-854. doi: 10.1017/S0033291714001925
Bais, Leonie, Vercammen, Ans, Stewart, Roy, Van Es, Frank, Visser, Bert, Aleman, André and Knegtering, Henderikus (2014). Short and long term effects of left and bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations: A randomized controlled trial. PLoS ONE, 9 (10) e108828. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108828
Vercammen, A., Weickert, C. S., Skilleter, A. J., Lenroot, R., Schofield, P. R. and Weickert, T. W. (2014). Common polymorphisms in dopamine-related genes combine to produce a 'schizophrenia-like' prefrontal hypoactivity. Translational Psychiatry, 4 (2) 2013125, e356-e356. doi: 10.1038/tp.2013.125
Vercammen, Ans, Skilleter, Ashley J., Lenroot, Rhoshel, Catts, Stanley V., Weickert, Cynthia Shannon and Weickert, Thomas W. (2013). Testosterone is inversely related to brain activity during emotional inhibition in schizophrenia. PLoS One, 8 (10) e77496, e77496.1-e77496.10. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077496
Ćurčić-Blake, Branislava, Liemburg, Edith, Vercammen, Ans, Swart, Marte, Knegtering, Henderikus, Bruggeman, Richard and Aleman, André (2013). When Broca goes uninformed: Reduced information flow to Broca's area in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 39 (5), 1087-1095. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbs107
Moore, L., Kyaw, M., Vercammen, A., Lenroot, R., Kulkarni, J., Curtis, J., O'Donnell, M., Carr, V. J., Shannon Weickert, C. and Weickert, T. W. (2013). Serum testosterone levels are related to cognitive function in men with schizophrenia. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38 (9), 1717-1728. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.02.007
Catts, Vibeke S., Fung, Samantha J., Long, Leonora E., Joshi, Dipesh, Vercammen, Ans, Allen, Katherine M., Fillman, Stu G., Rothmond, Debora A., Sinclair, Duncan, Tiwari, Yash, Tsai, Shan-Yuan, Weickert, Thomas W. and Weickert, Cynthia Shannon (2013). Rethinking schizophrenia in the context of normal neurodevelopment. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (MAY). doi: 10.3389/fncel.2013.00060
Waters, Flavie, Allen, Paul, Aleman, André, Fernyhough, Charles, Woodward, Todd S., Badcock, Johanna C., Barkus, Emma, Johns, Louise, Varese, Filippo, Menon, Mahesh, Vercammen, Ans and Laroi, Frank (2012). Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia and nonschizophrenia populations: A review and integrated model of cognitive mechanisms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 38 (4), 683-692. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbs045
Liemburg, Edith J., Vercammen, Ans, Ter Horst, Gert J., Curcic-Blake, Branislava, Knegtering, Henderikus and Aleman, André (2012). Abnormal connectivity between attentional, language and auditory networks in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 135 (1-3), 15-22. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2011.12.003
Morris, R. W., Vercammen, A., Lenroot, R., Moore, L., Langton, J. M., Short, B., Kulkarni, J., Curtis, J., O'Donnell, M., Weickert, C. S. and Weickert, T. W. (2012). Disambiguating ventral striatum fMRI-related bold signal during reward prediction in schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 17 (3), 280-289. doi: 10.1038/mp.2011.75
Morris, R. W., Vercammen, A., Lenroot, R., Moore, L., Langton, J. M., Short, B., Kulkarni, J., Curtis, J., O'Donnell, M., Weickert, C. S. and Weickert, T. W. (2012). Significant differences in fMRI related activity between healthy adults and people with schizophrenia during reward-related prediction-errors. Molecular Psychiatry, 17 (3). doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.1
Vercammen, Ans, Morris, Richard, Green, Melissa J., Lenroot, Rhoshel, Kulkarni, Jayashri, Carr, Vaughan J., Weickert, Cynthia Shannon and Weickert, Thomas W. (2012). Reduced neural activity of the prefrontal cognitive control circuitry during response inhibition to negative words in people with schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 37 (6), 379-388. doi: 10.1503/jpn.110088
Vercammen, Ans, Rushby, Jacqueline A., Loo, Colleen, Short, Brooke, Weickert, Cynthia S. and Weickert, Thomas W. (2011). Transcranial direct current stimulation influences probabilistic association learning in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 131 (1-3), 198-205. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2011.06.021
Vercammen, Ans, Knegtering, Henderikus, Bruggeman, Richard and Aleman, André (2011). Subjective loudness and reality of auditory verbal hallucinations and activation of the inner speech processing network. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 37 (5), 1009-1016. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbq007
Rushby, Jacqueline A., Vercammen, Ans, Loo, Colleen, Short, Brooke, Weickert, Cynthia Shannon and Weickert, Thomas W. (2011). Frontal and parietal contributions to probabilistic association learning. Cerebral Cortex, 21 (8), 1879-1888. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhq255
Vercammen, Ans, Knegtering, Henderikus, den Boer, Johann A., Liemburg, Edith J. and Aleman, André (2010). Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia are associated with reduced functional connectivity of the temporo-parietal area. Biological Psychiatry, 67 (10), 912-918. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.11.017
Vercammen, Ans and Aleman, André (2010). Semantic expectations can induce false perceptions in hallucination-prone individuals. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 36 (1), 151-156. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbn063
Vercammen, Ans, Knegtering, Henderikus, Liemburg, Edith J., Boer, Johannes A. den and Aleman, André (2010). Functional connectivity of the temporo-parietal region in schizophrenia: Effects of rTMS treatment of auditory hallucinations. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 44 (11), 725-731. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2009.12.011
Vercammen, Ans, Knegtering, Henderikus, Bruggeman, Richard, Westenbroek, Hanneke. M., Jenner, Jack A., Slooff, Cees J., Wunderink, Lex and Aleman, André (2009). Effects of bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on treatment resistant auditory-verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial. Schizophrenia Research, 114 (1-3), 172-179. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2009.07.013
Vingerhoets, G., Vandamme, K. and Vercammen, A. (2009). Conceptual and physical object qualities contribute differently to motor affordances. Brain and Cognition, 69 (3), 481-489. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2008.10.003
Modinos, Gemma, Vercammen, Ans, Mechelli, Andrea, Knegtering, Henderikus, McGuire, Philip K. and Aleman, André (2009). Structural covariance in the hallucinating brain: A voxel-based morphometry study. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 34 (6), 465-469.
Vercammen, A., De Haan, E. H.F. and Aleman, A. (2008). Hearing a voice in the noise: auditory hallucinations and speech perception. Psychological Medicine, 38 (8), 1177-1184. doi: 10.1017/S0033291707002437
Conference Papers
Weickert, Thomas, Weinberg, D., Lenroot, R., Catts, S. V., Wells, R., Vercammen, A., O'Donnell, M., Galletly, C., Liu, D., Balzan, R., Short, B., Pellen, D., Curtis, J., Carr, V. J., Kulkarni, J., Schofield, P. R. and Weickert, Cyndi Shannon (2015). Adjunctive Raloxifene Treatment Improves Attention and Memory in Men and Women with Schizophrenia. 15th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR), Colorado Springs, CO United States, 28 Mar-01 April 2015. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbv010
Ji, E., Weickert, C., Lenroot, R., Catts, S., Vercammen, A., White, C., Gur, R. and Weickert, T. (2015). Effects of adjunctive raloxifene treatment on brain activity during facial emotion processing in schizophrenia. 25th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry Jointly with the 13th Meeting of the Asian Pacific Society for Neurochemistry in Conjunction with the 35th Meeting of the Australasian Neuroscience Society, Cairns, QLD Australia, 23-27 August 2015. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. doi: 10.1111/jnc.13188
Derminio, Dominique S., Catts, Vibeke S., Rothwell, Alice, Moore, Loretta, Vella, Nicholas, Vercammen, Ans, Catts, Stanley V., Weickert, Thomas W. and Weickert, Cyndi Shannon (2012). Increased autoantibodies against brain tissue in schizophrenia. 67th Annual Scientific Convention and Meeting of the Society-of-Biological-Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 3-5 May 2012. Philadelphia, PA, United States: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.02.012