About
Esther van den Berg (1978) is associate professor and clinical neuropsychologist at the department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center Erasmus MC at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She is currently head of the Neuropsychology section and a board member of the Alzheimer Center Erasmus MC. Dr. van den Berg studied Psychology at Utrecht University and specialized in Neuropsychology and Clinical & Health Psychology. In 2009 she obtained her PhD (cum laude) at Utrecht University. In her PhD thesis she studied the neuropsychological sequelae of vascular risk factors – such as diabetes mellitus – in the ageing brain. She subsequently obtained her postmaster degree as Healthcare Psychologist (2010) and Clinical Neuropsychologist (2014).
Dr. van den Berg works as scientist practitioner, that is, her scientific research is closely interwoven with her clinical work and teaching activities. She has published >100 international peer-reviewed papers and has supervised multiple PhD students in their projects on dementia research. Her research is focused on improving neuropsychological assessment to support timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia. She develops reliable and valid neuropsychological tests and procedures for the assessment of social cognition (Theory of Mind), Vascular Cognitive Impairment, in early-onset dementia and in linguistically and culturally diverse populations. She collaborates within the Young Onset Dementia – Included (YOD Included) and Netherlands Dementia Prevention Initiative (NDPI) consortia of the Dutch National Dementia Strategy. Dr. van den Berg is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Alzheimer Nederland.
Declaration of interest
The research of Esther van den Berg is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) and the Erasmus MC Foundation.