Dr Ans Vercammen

Senior Research Fellow

School of Communication and Arts

a.vercammen@uq.edu.au

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.

Publications

Book Chapters (2)

Journal Articles (47)

Conference Papers (3)

Preprint (1)

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

Daeninck, Cami, Kioupi, Vasiliki and Vercammen, Ans (2023). Climate anxiety, coping strategies and planning for the future in environmental degree students in the UK. Frontiers in Psychology, 14 1126031, 1-13. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1126031

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

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

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

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). 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

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

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, 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

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

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

Preprint

Vercammen, Ans, Oswald, Tassia and Lawrance, Emma (2023). Psycho-social factors associated with climate distress, hope and behavioural intentions in young UK residents.