Focus Group: Neurodiversity and Mental Health

The Neurodiversity and Mental Health focus group aims to support neurodevelopmental research across the Donders Institute to enhance innovative, interlinked, robust and relevant science. Through four theme-based meetings of researchers together with national and international stakeholder organisations and projects such as SUNNI, Kentalis and ADHD Europe, this focus group plans to

• initiate collaborations and stimulate new research and funding bids
• harmonise research projects
• increase opportunities for scientific triangulation  
• establish co-creation between researchers and stakeholders

We invite all researchers across the  Donders Institute Network to participate in the event, attending, discussing and/or presenting research. 

During each meeting, there is an opportunity to present research to fellow researchers and stakeholders (4 slots), followed by round table discussions featuring each presenter to initiate collaboration and co-creation, accompanied by coffee and cake. 

Guidelines for reporting mental health outcomes (12/05/2026)

ADHD (01/09/2026)

Language and communication (13/10/2026)

Autism (10/11/2026)

Wrap-up (01/12/2026)

Past workshops

Modelling dimensions of mental health (10/06/2025)

Presenter	Title
Emma Sprooten	The bio in the bio-psycho-social-societal model
Lucia de Hoyos	Genome-wide analysis of social behaviour in context: a meta-regression approach across social domains, reporters and developmental stages

 

Stakeholder	Organisation
Chantel Fouche	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Europe
Tanel Peets	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Estonia

Developmental milestones in mental health (23/09/25)

Presenter	Title
Corette Wierenga	Coordination between excitation and inhibition in mental health
Rogier Kievit	Cognitive variability as a window into (a)typical development
Beate St Pourcain  & Ellen Verhoef	Studying links between language development and mental health: a genomic approach

 

Stakeholder	Organisation
Chantel Fouche	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Europe
Tanel Peets	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Estonia

ADHD (28/10/25)

Presenter	Title
Janita Bralten	ADHD and insulin
Martine Hoogman	Strengths in ADHD
Nina Hovén	Making the Invisible Visible with our Work in ADHD Europe
Anna Wagner	The romanticization of ADHD in social media videos

 

Stakeholder	Organisation
Chantel Fouche	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Europe
Tanel Peets	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Estonia
Nina Hovén	representative of ADHD Europe in R2D2, president ADHD Europe

Autism (25/11/25)

Presenter	Title
Anna Praat	Differences and similarities between Environmental Sensitivity and Autism Spectrum Condition
Judith Holler	Communicating Semantic and Pragmatic Information with the Body
Chao Guo	Visual Reinforcement and Reversal Learning in Shank3 Knockout Mice
Nina Hovén	ASD and ADHD: Comorbidity and Overlap
Sanjeevan Jahagirdar	Social Behaviour in Mental Health: an Analysis of Genomic Structures

Stakeholder	Organisation
Tanel Peets	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Estonia
Margot Gerritse	Patient Engagement Advisor (Autism)
Chantel Fouche	R2D2 co-creation group, ADHD Europe
Nina Hovén	representative of ADHD Europe in R2D2, president ADHD Europe

 

Organisers

The Neurodiversity and Mental Health focus group is led by

Beate St Pourcain – Population Genetics of Human Communication

in collaboration with the following groups and PIs:

• Clyde Franks – Imaging Genomics
• Corina Greven – Positive Developmental Psychopathology
• Jan Buitelaar – Neuropsychiatric and Developmental Disorders
• Martine Hoogman – Strengths, positive aspects and resilience factors in neurodevelopmental conditions
• Sabine Hunnius – Baby Research on Action, Interaction & Neurocognition
• Simon Fisher – Neurogenetics of Speech and Language
• Stephanie Forkel – Clinical Neuroanatomy of Language
• Ellen Verhoef - Population Genetics of Human Communication
• Paula Rubio-Fernandez - Multimodal Structure and Typology

 

For more information, please contact beate.stpourcain [at] mpi.nl (beate[dot]stpourcain[at]mpi[dot]nl) for research-related questions and julia.czarnecka [at] mpi.nl (julia[dot]czarnecka[at]mpi[dot]nl) for organizational issues.

This initiative is made possible by the Donders Research Stimulation Fund to Beate St Pourcain and co-applicants.