Contact Details

Curriculum Vitae:

Jiska is working as a postdoc researcher at the Department of Experimental Psychology (Utrecht University) with Dr. Jack van Honk. She is conducting a research project on brain volumes and white matter integrity in patients with amygdala calcification (Urbach Wiethe disease), using volumetric MRI and DTI. This study is carried out in collaboration with the Structural Neuroimaging group of the University Medical Center Utrecht (Prof. Dr. Hilleke Hulshoff Pol & Dr. René Mandl) and the Department of Psychiatry of Cape Town University, South Africa (Prof. Dr. Dan Stein).

During her PhD, Jiska investigated the influence of pubertal hormones, genetic and environmental factors on brain structure in early pubertal children.

In 2010, she has been awarded with a VENI grant (250.000 Euro) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for the proposal: 'Acting on impulse: tracking sex hormones in the developing human brain'.
 

List of publications:

• Peper JS, Brouwer RM, Van Leeuwen M, Schnack HG, Boomsma DI, Kahn  RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2010). HPG-axis hormones during puberty: a study on the association with hypothalamic and pituitary volumes. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35 (1): 133-140.
   
• Peper JS, Kahn RS, Boomsma DI, Hulshoff Pol HE (2009). Hersenstructuur in de vroege puberteit: een studie naar genetische en hormonale factoren. Tijdschrift voor Neuropsychiatrie en Gedragsneurologie 6/7: 143-146 (article in Dutch).
   
• Peper JS, Brouwer RM, Van Baal GCM, Schnack HG, Van Leeuwen M, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2009). Does having a twin-brother make for a bigger brain? European Journal of Endocrinology 160 (5): 739-746. 
   
• Peper JS, Zwiers MP, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2009).  Volumetric Brain Mapping: What’s in the Genes? In: Handbook of Behavior Genetics (Kim, Y.K., editor). New York, Springer-Verlag Inc. Chapter 10, pp 137-158.
   
• Peper JS, Schnack HG, Brouwer RM, Van Baal GCM, Pjetri E, Székely E, Van Leeuwen M, Van den Berg SM, Collins DL, Evans AC, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2009). Heritability of regional and global brain structure at the onset of puberty: a Magnetic Resonance Imaging study in 9-year old twin-pairs. Human Brain Mapping 30 (7): 2184-2196.
   
• Peper JS, Brouwer RM, Van Baal GCM, Schnack HG, Van Leeuwen M, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2009). Sex steroids and cerebral brain structure in pubertal boys and girls. Psychoneuroendocrinology 34 (3): 332-342. 
   
• Peper JS, Brouwer RM, Schnack HG, Van Baal GCM, Van Leeuwen M, Van den Berg SM, Delemarre-Van de Waal HA, Janke AL, Collins DL, Evans AC, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2008). Cerebral white matter in early puberty is associated with luteinizing hormone concentrations. Psychoneuroendocrinology 33 (7): 909-915. 
   
• Peper JS, Brouwer RM, Boomsma DI, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE (2007). Genetic influences on human brain structure: a review of brain imaging studies in twins. Human Brain Mapping 28 (6): 646-473. 

• Terburg D, Peper JS, Morgan BM, Van Honk J (2009). Sex differences in human aggression: The interaction between early developmental and later activational testosterone. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32 (3/4): 42.
   
• Van Leeuwen M, Peper JS, Van den Berg SM, Brouwer RM, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS, Boomsma DI (2009) The genetic and environmental structure of brain volumes and IQ. Intelligence 37 (2): 181-191. 
   
• Schutter DJLG, Peper JS, Koppeschaar HPC, Kahn RS, van Honk J (2005). Administration of Testosterone Increases Functional Connectivity in a Cortico-Cortical Depression Circuit. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 17 (3): 372-7.
   
• Van Honk J, Peper JS, Schutter DJLG (2005).  Testosterone reduces unconscious fear but not consciously experienced anxiety: Implications for the disorders of fear and anxiety. Biological Psychiatry 58 (3): 218-25. 

• Brouwer RM, Mandl RC, Peper JS, Van Baal GC, Kahn RS, Boomsma DI, Hulshoff Pol HE (2010). Heritability of MTR and DTI in 9-year old children. Neuroimage [Epub ahead of print].

• Van Soelen ILC, Brouwer RM, Peper JS, Van Beijsterveld TC, Van Leeuwen M, De Vries LS, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE, Boomsma DI (2010). Effects of gestational age and birth weight on brain volumes in healthy 9-year old children. Journal of Pediatrics [Epub ahead of print]. 

• Van Leeuwen M, Van den Berg SM, Peper JS, Hulshoff Pol HE, Boomsma DI (2009). The genetic relationship between reading ability, intelligence and memory in children. Behavior Genetics 39 (3): 245-54.
   
• Schutter DJLG, Van Honk J, Peper JS, de Haan EHF (2002). Principes en toepassingen van transcraniale magnetische stimulatie in de klinische neurowetenschappen. Neuropraxis 6: 8-12. (Article in Dutch).
   
• Hulshoff Pol HE, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Van Haren NEM, Peper JS, Brans, RGH, Cahn W, Schnack HG, Gooren LJG, Kahn RS (2006). Changing your sex changes your brain: Influences of testosterone and estrogen on adult human brain structure. European Journal of Endocrinology. Nov;155 Suppl 1:S107-14. 
   
• Schutter DJLG, Van Honk J, D’Alfonso ALL, Peper JS, Panksepp, J (2003). High frequency rTMS over the medial cerebellum induces a shift in the frontopolar gamma spectrum. Neuroscience Letters 366: 73-76. 

• Van Soelen ILC, Van den Berg SM, Dekker PH, Van Leeuwen M, Peper JS, Hulshoff Pol HE, Boomsma DI. Individual differences in verbal short-term memory in 9-year-old twin-pairs and their older siblings. Learning and Individual Differences, in press.