Lorenza Colzato

Lorenza S. Colzato (born 20 September 1974) is an Italian cognitive psychologist whose research "aims to understand the neural and neuromodular underpinnings of cognitive control in humans."[1]

Life

Colzato was born in Bolzano, Italy.[2] She studied cognitive and clinical psychology at the University of Padova, Italy, in 1999. She then moved to Leiden University where she obtained her PhD degree (2005) under the supervision of Prof. Lex van der Heijden. In 2006, she began work as an assistant professor at the Cognitive Psychology Unit of Leiden University (Cognitieve Psychologie). Since 2017, she is professor by special appointment at the Ruhr-University of Bochum and since 2019, she works as researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of the TU Dresden. She is also a psychotherapist.[2]

Research

Colzato's research is focused on how thinking and creativity are shaped. Her research often touches on popular topics and the resulting papers are discussed in popular media: examples include studies on exercise and creativity,[3] the effect of odors on trust,[4] and the effect of meditation on creative thinking.[5]

Investigation

As of December 2019, Colzato's work at Leiden University is being investigated for various alleged breaches of academic integrity, including data manipulation, misattribution of authorship, and collection of blood samples without permission from the Medical Ethical board.[6][7] The latter would be a criminal offense.[8][9] Colzato has resigned from her position at Leiden University, and has requested a second opinion from the university's academic integrity committee.[10] She also has pointed out that one of the accusers, a PhD candidate at that time, was the person who actually performed the study (which the medical ethics review board declined to approve), took the blood samples and is the lead and corresponding (hence, responsible) author of one of the two articles in question. She has further argued that Leiden University has violated various rules and regulations throughout the investigation. [11][12] However, both the University Scientific Integrity Committee (CWI) and the Netherlands Board on Research Integrity (LOWI) concluded that, whatever the wrong-doings of her accuser may have been, such would not be sufficient to exculpate Colzato (being the supervisor or principal investigator) for the confirmed integrity violations, including performing an unapproved medical study. On September 21, 2020, the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that Leiden University had, in August, made Colzato's provisional dismissal a definitive one.[13]

Selected works
  • Colzato,L.S., Jongkees, B.J., Sellaro, R., van den Wildenberg, W., & Hommel, B. (2014). Eating to stop: Tyrosine supplementation enhances inhibitory control but not response execution. Neuropsychologia, 62, 398-402. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.12.027
  • Colzato, L.S., Szapora, A., Lippelt, D. & Hommel, B. (2014). Prior meditation practice modulates performance and strategy use in convergent- and divergent- thinking problems. Mindfulness. doi:10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9
  • Colzato, L. S., Waszack, F. Nieuwenhuis, S. T., Posthuma, D., & Hommel, B. (2010). The flexible mind is associated with the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism: Evidence for a role of dopamine in the control of task switching. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2764-2768.
  • Colzato, L. S., van Leeuwen, P.J.A., van den Wildenberg, W., & Hommel, B. (2010). DOOM’d to switch: Superior cognitive flexibility in players of first person shooter games. Front. Psychol, 1(8), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00008
  • Sellaro, R., Derks, B., Nitsche, M.A., Hommel, B., van den Wildenberg, W.P.M., van Dam, K., Colzato, L.S. (2015). Reducing prejudice through brain stimulation, Brain Stimulation, doi:10.1016/j.brs.2015.04.003
  • Steenbergen, L., Sellaro, R., Stock, A.K., Beste, C., & Colzato, L.S. (2015). Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) enhances response selection during action cascading processes. European Neuropsychopharmacology. doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.03.015
  • Steenbergen, L., Sellaro, R., van Hemert, S., Bosch, J.A., & Colzato, L.S. (2015). A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cognitive reactivity to sad mood. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2015.04.003


  • The university of Leiden recommended the retraction of two papers: [14] However, the respective journals have not yet taken a decision and the articles are still available. [15][16]
    • Colzato L. ,Steenbergen L., Sellaro R. The effect of gamma-enhancing binaural beats on the control of feature bindings. Exp Brain Res 2017 ;235:2125-2131.
    • Steenbergen L., Colzato L. Overweight and Cognitive Performance: High Body Mass Index Is Associated with Impairment in Reactive Control during Task Switching. Front Nutr 2017; 4: 51.

See also

References
  1. Colzato official site: Research interests Page accessed 7 May 2015
  2. Colzato CV Page accessed 7 May 2015
  3. Sarah Knapton for The Daily Telegraph. 3 December 2013 Lacking inspiration? Exercise found to boost creativity
  4. Mandy Oaklander for Time. 14 January 2015 You Can Make People Trust You With This Scent, Study Says
  5. Jayalakshmi K for the International Business Times. 29 October 2014 Meditation Shown to Improve Creative Thinking Even Without Prior Practice
  6. "Breach of academic integrity by former employee of Leiden University". Leiden University News. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  7. Braun, Bart. "How a Leiden psychologist committed fraud". Mare. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  8. Psycholoog schond vele normen (Psychologist violated many norms) published 6 December 2019, Dutch language in NRC Handelsblad by Sander Voormolen, retrieved 7 December 2019
  9. Leidse klokkenluiders: Je leert heel snel om je mond te houden (Whistle blowers from Leiden: You quickly learn to shut your mouth) published 16 December 2019, Dutch language
  10. "Beschuldigde psycholoog: 'Ik voerde geen schrikbewind'". Mare. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  11. Marcus, Author Adam (5 December 2019). "Psychology researcher committed misconduct, says university". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  12. "Beschuldigde psycholoog: 'Ik voerde geen schrikbewind'". Mare Online (in Dutch). Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  13. "Leidse psycholoog schond inderdaad gedragsregels". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  14. https://retractionwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/advies-cwi-2019-01-geanonimiseerd.pdf
  15. Colzato, Lorenza S.; Steenbergen, Laura; Sellaro, Roberta (1 July 2017). "The effect of gamma-enhancing binaural beats on the control of feature bindings". Experimental Brain Research. 235 (7): 2125–2131. doi:10.1007/s00221-017-4957-9. ISSN 1432-1106. PMC 5486945. PMID 28409319.
  16. Steenbergen, Laura; Colzato, Lorenza S. (2017). "Overweight and Cognitive Performance: High Body Mass Index Is Associated with Impairment in Reactive Control during Task Switching". Frontiers in Nutrition. 4: 51. doi:10.3389/fnut.2017.00051. ISSN 2296-861X. PMC 5671535. PMID 29164126.
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