Laura Wesseldijk, PhD
Research Interests
Laura Wesseldijk works as a senior researcher at the Behavioral Genetics unit of the Max Planck Institute of Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. Her interest and expertise lie in the field of behavioral genetics, twin studies, molecular genetics, mental health, and musical engagement. Her work addresses factors that influence the development of musical expertise as well as the relationship between musical engagement and other outcomes such as mental health, with a focus on gene-environment interplay.
By using genetically informative designs, she is able to strengthen causal inferences and adjust for familial confounding when studying factors (such as musical engagement) and their relationships to mental health or when studying phenomena of interest in the field of music research, such as sensitive periods in music acquisition, the importance of the childhood environment for adult musical achievement and individual differences in the effect of practice. Currently, she is working on passive music engagement, i.e., listening to music, and how this and different genres, relate to individuals’ mental health. Additionally, making use of molecular genetic techniques, she works on investigating specific genetic variants and their potential pathways affecting musicality and music-related traits.
- Musical engagement and expertise
- Mental health
- Twin and family studies
- Molecular genetics
- Gene-environmental interplay
Vita
Academic Education
| 2018 | PhD in Behavioral Genetics and Psychopathology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, including 6 months at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia |
| 2013 | Research Master in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience – Neuropsychology, cum laude, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, including 9 months research internship at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya |
| 2011 | Bachelor in Psychology, specialization Biological Psychology, cum laude, Maastricht University, the Netherlands |
| 2009-2010 | Honors Program Psychology (top 5%), Maastricht University, the Netherlands |
| 2005 | Gymnasium, Anna van Rijn College, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands |
Academic Experience
| 2022 | Assistant Professor at the department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany |
| 2018–2024 | Post-doctoral researcher (.2FTE) at the Department of Social Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| 2020-2022 | Post-doctoral researcher (.8FTE) at the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC |
| 2020-2022 | Post-doctoral researcher at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Australia, in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC |
| 2018-2020 | Post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden |
Publications
in peer-review
Bignardi, G., Wesseldijk, L. W., Mas-Herrero, E., Zatorre, R. J., Ullén, F., Fisher, S. E., & Mosing, M. A. (revision at Nature Communications). Distinct genetic pathways to music enjoyment. bioRxiv, 2024.2004. 2004.588094.
Abdellaoui, A.*, Wesseldijk, L.W.*, Gordon, S. D., Pasman, J. A., Smit, D. J., Androvicov, R. ..., Zietsch, B. (revision at PNAS). Life without sex: Large-scale study links sexlessness to physical, cognitive, and personality traits, socioecological factors, and DNA. MedRxiv, 2024.2007. 2024.24310943. *shared first author
Articles (in peer-reviewed journals)
Wesseldijk, L. W., Mosing, M. A., & Ullén, F. (2024). Gene-environment interaction in expertise acquisition: Practice effects on musical expertise vary by polygenic scores for cognitive performance. Heliyon, 10(14).
Wesseldijk, L. W., Henechowicz, T. L., Baker, D. J., Bignardi, G., Karlsson, R., Gordon, R. L., . . . Fisher, S. E. (2024). Notes from Beethoven’s genome. Current Biology, 34(6), R233-R234.
Christensen, J. F., Wesseldijk, L. W., Mosing, M. A., Fayn, K., Schmidt, E.-M., Blattmann, M., . . . Ullén, F. (2024). The dancer personality: Comparing dancers and non-dancers in Germany and Sweden. Personality and Individual Differences, 222, 112603.
Simonsson, O., Mosing, M. A., Osika, W., Ullén, F., Larsson, H., Lu, Y., & Wesseldijk, L. W. (2024). Adolescent psychedelic use and psychotic or manic symptoms. JAMA psychiatry, 81(6), 579-585.
Perizonius, S., Wesseldijk, L. W., Clifton, J. D., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2024). The world as I see it: genetic and environmental influences on primal world beliefs in a large Swedish twin sample. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-11.
Koenders, E. A., Wesseldijk, L. W., Boomsma, D. I., Larsen, J. K., & Vink, J. M. (2024). Heritability of adult picky eating in the Netherlands. Appetite, 195, 107230.
Gaston E., Ullén F., Wesseldijk L.W*, Mosing M.A.* (2024) Can flow proneness be protective against mental and cardiovascular health problems? A genetically informed prospective cohort study. Translational Psychiatry. 2024 Mar 13;14(1):144. *shared last author
Wesseldijk, L. W., Lu, Y., Karlsson, R., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2023). A comprehensive investigation into the genetic relationship between music engagement and mental health. Translational Psychiatry, 13(1), 15.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2023). Music and genetics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 105302.
Kupfer, T. R., & Wesseldijk, L. W. (2023). Heritability of Jealousy. In Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior: Springer, Cham. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_1109-1.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Tybur, J. M., Boomsma, D. I., Willemsen, G., & Vink, J. M. (2023). The heritability of pescetarianism and vegetarianism. Food Quality and Preference, 103, 104705.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Gordon, R. L., Mosing, M. A., & Ullén, F. (2023). Music and verbal ability—A twin study of genetic and environmental associations. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 17(6), 675.
Offermans, J. E., de Bruin, E. I., Lange, A. M., Middeldorp, C. M., Wesseldijk, L. W., Boomsma, D. I., . . . van Steensel, F. J. (2023). The development and validation of a subscale for the school-age Child Behavior CheckList to screen for autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(3), 1034-1052.
Gustavson, D. E., Coleman, P. L., Wang, Y., Nitin, R., Petty, L. E., Bush, C. T., Wesseldijk L.W. . . . Team, M. R. (2023). Exploring the genetics of rhythmic perception and musical engagement in the Vanderbilt Online Musicality Study. Annals of the new York Academy of Sciences, 1521(1), 140-154.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Abdellaoui, A., Gordon, R. L., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2022). Using a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 14658. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-18703-w
Henry, S., Baker, W., Bratko, D., Jern, P., Kandler, C., Tybur, J. M., . . . Booth, T. (2022). Nuanced HEXACO: A meta-analysis of HEXACO cross-rater agreement, heritability, and rank-order stability. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 01461672241253637.
Kupfer, T. R., Sidari, M. J., Zietsch, B. P., Jern, P., Tybur, J. M., & Wesseldijk, L. W. (2022). Why are some people more jealous than others? Genetic and environmental factors. Evolution and Human Behavior, 43(1), 26–33.
de Vries, R. E., Wesseldijk, L. W., Karinen, A. K., Jern, P., & Tybur, J. M. (2022). Relations between HEXACO personality and ideology variables are mostly genetic in nature. European Journal of Personality, 36(2), 200-217.
Karinen, A. K., Wesseldijk, L. W., Jern, P., & Tybur, J. M. (2021). Sex, Drugs, and Genes: Illuminating the Moral Condemnation of Recreational Drugs. Psychological Science, 32(10), 1582-1591. doi.org/10.1177/0956797621997350
Çınar, Ç., Wesseldijk, L. W., Karinen, A. K., Jern, P., & Tybur, J. M. (2021). Sex differences in the genetic and environmental underpinnings of meat and plant preferences. Food Quality and Preference, 104421. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104421
Kandler C., Bratko D., Butković A., Hlupić T.V.., Tybur J.M., Wesseldijk L.W., de Vries R.E., Jern P., Lewis G.J. (2021). How genetic and environmental variance in personality traits shift across the life span: Evidence from a cross-national twin study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(5):1079-1094. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000366.
Wesseldijk, L. W., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2020). Does listening to music increase your ability to discriminate musical sounds? Personality and Individual Differences, 161, 110001. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110001
Wesseldijk, L. W., Mosing, M. A., & Ullen, F. (2020). Is there a sensitive period for musical skill acquisition during development? A genetically informative study. Psychological Science, 3-13. doi: 10.1177/0956797620959014
Tybur, J. M., Wesseldijk, L. W., & Jern, P. (2020). Genetic and environmental influences on disgust proneness, contamination sensitivity, and their covariance. Clinical Psychological Science, 8(6), 1054–1061. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620951510
Wesseldijk, L. W., Ullén, F., & Mosing, M. A. (2019). The effects of playing music on mental health outcomes. Scientific reports, 9(1), 12606. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49099-9
Wesseldijk, L. W., Mosing, M. A., & Ullén, F. (2019). Gene-environment interaction in expertise: The importance of childhood environment for musical achievement. Developmental Psychology. doi:10.1037/dev0000726
Wesseldijk, L. W., Dieleman, G. C., van Steensel, F. J. A., Bleijenberg, E. J., Bartels, M., Bogels, S. M., & Middeldorp, C. M. (2018). Do Parental Psychiatric Symptoms Predict Outcome in Children With Psychiatric Disorders? A Naturalistic Clinical Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57(9), 669-677 e666. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2018.05.017
Wesseldijk, L. W., Bartels, M., Vink, J. M., van Beijsterveldt, C. E. M., Ligthart, L., Boomsma, D. I., & Middeldorp, C. M. (2018). Genetic and environmental influences on conduct and antisocial personality problems in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(9), 1123-1132. doi:10.1007/s00787-017-1014-y
Wesseldijk, L. W., Dieleman, G. C., van Steensel, F. J. A., Bartels, M., Hudziak, J. J., Lindauer, R. J. L., . . . Middeldorp, C. M. (2018). Risk factors for parental psychopathology: a study in families with children or adolescents with psychopathology. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(12), 1575-1584. doi:10.1007/s00787-018-1156-6
Wesseldijk, L. W., Fedko, I. O., Bartels, M., Nivard, M. G., van Beijsterveldt, C. E., Boomsma, D. I., & Middeldorp, C. M. (2017). Psychopathology in 7-year-old children: Differences in maternal and paternal ratings and the genetic epidemiology. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Disorders, 174(3), 251-260. doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.32500
Fedko, I. O., Wesseldijk, L. W., Nivard, M. G., Hottenga, J. J., van Beijsterveldt, C. E., Middeldorp, C. M., . . . Boomsma, D. I. (2017). Heritability of Behavioral Problems in 7-Year Olds Based on Shared and Unique Aspects of Parental Views. Behavior Genetics, 47(2), 152-163. doi:10.1007/s10519-016-9823-1
Middeldorp, C. M., Wesseldijk, L. W., Hudziak, J. J., Verhulst, F. C., Lindauer, R. J., & Dieleman, G. C. (2016). Parents of children with psychopathology: psychiatric problems and the association with their child's problems. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 25(8), 919-927. doi:10.1007/s00787-015-0813-2
Wesseldijk, L. W., Dieleman, G. C., Lindauer, R. J. L., Bartels, M., Willemsen, G., Hudziak, J. J., . . . Middeldorp, C. M. (2016). Spousal resemblance in psychopathology: A comparison of parents of children with and without psychopathology. European Psychiatry, 34, 49-55. doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.2423
van Veen, S. C., Batelaan, N. M., Wesseldijk, L. W., Rozeboom, J., & Middeldorp, C. M. (2016). Psychopathology in families: an integral approach via the family outpatient clinic. Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie, 58(2), 95-104.
Awards & Grants
| 2022 | Co-PI on Olle Engkvist award, Psychotic and bipolar disorders: the interplay of genetics and psychedelia |
| 2022 | Co-PI on Primals Research Award, Primals Project, Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania |
| 2017 | Talent Fund of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for research visit to the Child Health Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia |
| 2016 | Travel grant from Simonsfonds (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Humane Genetica) to attend the Behaviour Genetics Association Meeting, Brisbane, Australia |
| 2016 | Travel grant from the Behaviour Genetics Association |
| 2012 | Travel grant from Rotary Club Maastricht for research internship in Eldoret, Kenya |