Neuropsychologist Eveline Crone (EUR):
“We need rebellious young people who view the world through a creative lens”
Neuropsychologist Eveline Crone investigates how young people’s brains develop and how they find their way in a complex society. She has won many prestigious scientific awards and wrote the bestseller Het Puberende Brein. “I was a well-behaved teenager myself.”
Keynote SURF Research Day 19 May
In her keynote speech at SURF Research Day (19 May 2026) Eveline Crone will tell us all about her work in the GUTS consortium: a collaboration of 7 universities and a wide variety of disciplines that study how young people grow up in a complex society.
Eveline Crone’s research has turned our view of adolescence on its head: adolescents are not difficult or ‘unruly’; they are going through a unique period of development in which they learn who they are and how to find their way in society. Eveline was one of the first researchers in the world to study adolescent brains by combining MRI scans, questionnaires and experiments. She has been following some of these young people for decades.
Eveline Crone
What sort of teenager were you yourself?
“A fairly standard teenager, really. I wasn’t particularly rebellious. My father died young, so I grew up with my mother and my sister – a real trio. I have a wonderful mother who was both my father and my mother. I think that’s why I was just very helpful at home. But at school, I did enjoy rebelling a bit, to gain status among my peers. Now I look back on that and think: how interesting, you don’t always have to be the same person in every situation.”
In your work, you bring together neuroscience, social science, psychology, society and the ideas of young people themselves. Why?
“I started brain research 20 years ago: working with a group of people across the globe to discover how the brain works, how different areas of the brain interact, and how that relates to behaviour. I was in a flow of discoveries, and that’s such a brilliant experience. But after about 10 or 15 years, you reach a sort of saturation point. We’ve now thoroughly explored a number of big questions: how does the human brain work in general; how do you perform a maths problem; how do you recognise another person’s emotions? I started wondering exactly how people differ from one another, and why.”
“When you discover there’s a white matter pathway in the brain that responds to impulsivity, you’re absolutely delighted: we can predict what people are going to do based on the brain. But it has absolutely no relevance in society. Whether someone is going to commit a crime, or whether they can pass to the next school level, you really can’t predict that based on a brain scan. When I went to schools to give talks on risky behaviour among young people, teachers would say: “Interesting, but how does that relate to motivation? That’s where we see a lot of problems.” I realised: “Oh, is that what you’re struggling with?”
“So, I got a bit frustrated: there are bigger questions to answer, and we need more than one research method to examine them from all angles. With lab experiments alone, you miss the essence of what people are actually dealing with in society. That’s why we started doing what’s known as participatory action research, where the target group is involved in the questions you ask and the direction the research should take. I think that using that method will also improve your MRI research into brain development, because you’ll start asking different kinds of questions. That’s perhaps the most difficult task for scientists: asking the right questions.”
In the GUTS project, you’re studying the neuropsychological development of young people in relation to society and influences such as social media. How do you explore all these complex connections?
“That’s quite a challenge. Scientists need autonomy and are incredibly stubborn – myself included. So, it’s not easy to get so many people pulling in the same direction. That only works if you have a clear goal on the horizon: this is what we’re all working towards together.”
GUTS stands for growing up together in society. A consortium involving 7 universities. “We’ve been working on this for 3 years now, and I’m proud that we’ve managed to obtain a harmonised dataset, including the MRI, through multiple work packages, each focusing on a different aspect of young people.”
“In the various work packages, we look at socio-economic status, trust in institutions, having prospects for the future, academic success, social networks and violating the law. We carry out the same measurements across all these cohorts and compile them into a single overview. That has never been done before. In this way, we are trying to better understand why young people do what they do and how their personal and societal goals relate to one another.”
What challenges arise in this regard in terms of IT and data?
“Our data manager is working with the data stewards from the participating universities and SURF to create a comprehensive platform where all this data comes together and is accessible across all the different locations. The biggest challenge is the tension between privacy and open science. We are working with minors, whom you want to protect particularly well, but we also believe it is important to share the data with one another. The question then is whether you can keep information shielded, whilst retaining the option to make it public again in the future.”
What is one of the most surprising insights you have gained from your research?
“That was a while ago, but it still guides my research. Once we discovered that certain reward centres in the brain are particularly sensitive in young people, we quickly linked this to risky behaviour: drinking alcohol or smoking for status or due to peer pressure. But then we realised that the brain centres so sensitive to reward are also very important for cooperation, forming deep and intimate friendships, and being a confidant to your best friend. All positive social skills that apply to most young people.”
“For too long, we viewed adolescence as a period of problems"
“For too long, we viewed adolescence as a period of problems. That goes back centuries, mind you; Socrates already said: the youth of today are no good at all. But it was the wrong lens through which to view things, because it didn’t match our findings at all.”
“One of the best things about my work is that society now views young people differently: they’re actually doing quite well whilst growing up in a highly complex society, with climate change, social inequality, a pandemic, the threat of war, but also rapid digital development and the fact that you can be online all day long. We desperately need that strength and that cheeky, rebellious attitude of young people, because they view the world through a creative and fresh lens. We’ve just conducted a major study on polarisation within my lab, because young people put that on the agenda themselves. That’s very hopeful.”
How do you see this reflected in your own teenagers?
“My children enjoy coming across me in a textbook and they contribute to my research. The youth panels we work with also have a strong need for authenticity. They don’t go easy on us in any way and let us know straight away if something needs to be done differently. My children do exactly the same. My daughter is very socially engaged, a typical 17-year-old who feels a strong need to change the world. It’s lovely to see. I hope she succeeds. And my son is 12; he’s still discovering himself, and who he is in the world.”
"With lab experiments alone, you miss the essence of what people are actually dealing with in society."
Do you still have a big dream regarding your research?
“If young people are the game changers when it comes to social issues, is the adult brain perhaps wired to support that? We know that the brain changes significantly under the influence of pregnancy, parenthood, hormonal changes, or when you change jobs – in other words, during different stages of life. As you approach 65, you take on a different, more supportive role in society, and I want to investigate whether your brain adapts to that.”
“I am now entering a phase myself where my main motivation is to see the talents in my group grow into important positions. That’s already happening a lot, mind you; I’ve been able to help establish excellent groups in various parts of the Netherlands. Besides that, I really hope for a different academic culture, focused on collaboration rather than competition.”
Text: Josje Spinhoven
Photo’s: Sicco van Grieken
Eveline Crone
1999: Master of Science in Psychology (University of Amsterdam)
2003: PhD (cum laude) from University of Amsterdam
2003-2005: postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis
2005: set up the Brain and Development Lab at Leiden University
2009: full professor in Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology (Leiden University)
2013: became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
2020: full professor of Developmental Neuroscience in Society at Erasmus University Rotterdam
Eveline has been awarded several prestigious research grants, including a Veni, Vidi and Vici grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and 2 grants by the European Research Council (ERC): a Starting Grant in 2010 and a Consolidator Grant in 2016. In September 2017, Eveline received the Spinoza award for her research on the adolescent brain. The Spinoza award is the highest recognition in Dutch Science.