Marie-José van Tol and Marlijn Besten receive idea generator grant

Out of the 494 submitted projects for the Nationale Wetenschapsagenda, the project of Marie-José van Tol and Marlijn Besten is one of the 37 that has received an idea generator grant of 50K euro. In this project (a collaboration with Marieke van Vugt, Artifical Intelligence expert at the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Hilbrand Oldenhuis, Personalised Digitial Health specialist at the Hanze University of Applied Science) entitled: ‘How to put a brake on rumination: tracking effects of fantasizing- and mindfulness-based interventions on depressive vulnerability in the wild.’ new ways will be developed to objectively track negative thinking and study how changing this can prevent recurrent depression. Persistent negative thinking is a key characteristic of recurrent Major Depressive Disorder. Therapeutic techniques, including fantasizing and mindfulness, seem potent in reducing negative thoughts but may rely on different mechanisms. This project aims to give insight into these mechanisms of change.