Aleksandrina Skvortsova does experimental research on the impact of psychological factors on health and treatment efficacy.

More information about Aleksandrina Skvortsova

Aleksandrina Skvortsova does experimental research on the impact of psychological factors on health and treatment efficacy.

Research

Skvortsova does experimental research on the impact of psychological factors such as expectations, stress, and memory on health and treatment efficacy. With a focus on placebo and nocebo effects, she investigates their role in food metabolism, hunger regulation, and pain perception. Additionally, Aleksandrina's research extends to examining how communication with healthcare professionals influences patients' health. Finally, Aleksandrina is involved in a large consortium on pandemic preparedness where she does qualitative and policy research (p3venti). 

Skvortsova is also actively involved in open science community. She is a project manager for Replications & Reversals project of the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FFORT).

Teaching

• Clinical Neuropsychology
• Innovations in Clinical Neurospychology
• Supervision of Bachelor projects
• Supervision of internal and external master theses and research internships

Short CV

Skvortsova completed her PhD thesis 'Conditioning of the neuroendocrine system: the role of oxytocin' at Leiden University.  Her research focused on classical conditioning of endocrine responses and the link between endocrine system and placebo and nocebo effects in pain. After that, she spent two years working as a Rubicon fellow at the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She joined the Health, Medical, and Neuropsychology section of Leiden University as an Assistant Professor in February 2024.

Grants and Awards

• 2022 - Travel grant of Quebec Pain Research Network for attending Neuroscience 2022 conference in San Diego, USA.
• 2022 - Travel grant of International Association for the Study of Pain for attending the 2022 World Congress on Pain in Toronto, Canada.
• 2020 - Rubicon Grant of Dutch Research Council (NWO). Individual fellowship for performing 2 years research at Psychology Department of McGill University, Canada. 
• 2017 - APS Young Scholar Scholarship Award, American Psychosomatic Society.

Publications