dr. A (Anita) Harrewijn

Biography

Why do some adolescents develop anxiety disorders, while others do not? And how can we use this knowledge for more effective interventions?

I study neural and behavioral correlates of attention bias and social stress to answer these questions. I study social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association using Generation R data, as part of my Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship. Before, I was a post-doctoral researcher at the NIMH with Dr. Daniel Pine and Prof. Nathan Fox. I led several fMRI and behavioral studies with children with and without anxiety disorders and analyzed data from a 16-year longitudinal fMRI study. I have received my PhD in Developmental Psychology from Leiden University (The Netherlands). My dissertation focused on delineating electrophysiological endophenotypes of social anxiety disorder.

Researcher

Email: a.harrewijn@erasmusmc.nl

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Assistant professor | Clinical Psychology

Email: harrewijn@essb.eur.nl

Work

Corey Richier, André Zugman, Anita Harrewijn, Elise M Cardinale, Parmis Khosravi, Moji Aghajani, Willem B Bruin, Kevin Hilbert, Narcis Cardoner, Daniel Porta-Casteràs, Marta Cano, Savannah Gosnell, Ramiro Salas, Andrea P Jackowski, Pedro M Pan, Giovanni A Salum, Karina S Blair, James R Blair, Mohammed R Milad, Katie L Burkhouse, K Luan Phan, Heidi K Schroeder, Jeffrey R Strawn, Katja Beesdo-Baum, Neda Jahanshad, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Jared A Nielsen, Jordan W Smoller, Jair C Soares, Benson Mwangi, Mon-Ju Wu, Giovana B Zunta-Soares, Michal Assaf, Gretchen J Diefenbach, Paolo Brambilla, Eleonora Maggioni, David Hofmann, Thomas Straube, Carmen Andreescu, Rebecca B Price, Gisele G Manfro, Federica Agosta, Elisa Canu, Camilla Cividini, Massimo Filippi, Milutin Kostić, Ana Munjiza Jovanovic, Brenda Benson, Gabrielle F Freitag, Ellen Leibenluft, Grace V Ringlein, Kathryn Werwath, Hannah Zwiebel, Hans J Grabe, Sandra Van der Auwera, Katharina Wittfeld, Henry Völzke, Robin Bülow, Nicholas L Balderston, Monique Ernst, Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi, Helena van Nieuwenhuizen, Hugo D Critchley, Elena Makovac, Matteo Mancini, Frances Meeten, Cristina Ottaviani, Gregory A Fonzo, Martin P Paulus, Murray B Stein, Raquel E Gur, Ruben C Gur, Antonia N Kaczkurkin, Bart Larsen, Theodore D Satterthwaite, Jennifer Harper, Michael T Perino, Chad M Sylvester, Qiongru Yu, Patrick McClure, Francisco Pereira, Ulrike Lueken, Dick J Veltman, Paul M Thompson, Nynke A Groenewold, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Dan J Stein, Nic J A Van der Wee, Anderson M Winkler, Daniel S Pine & Chelsea K Sawyers (2026) - Brain age prediction in generalized anxiety disorder using a convolutional neural network - Translational Psychiatry - doi: 10.1038/s41398-026-04078-3 - [link]
, Daniel Porta-Casteras, Janna-Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Nynke A. Groenewold, Anita Harrewijn, Anderson Winkler, Andre Zugman, Joaquim Radua, Paul M. Thompson, Nic. J. A. van der Wee, Dan J. Stein, Daniel S. Pine, Narcis Cardoner & Marta Cano (2026) - Decoding Generalized Anxiety Disorder From Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Machine Learning ENIGMA-Anxiety Study - Biological Psychiatry, 99 (10), S278-S279 - [link]
Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Rachel A. Bernstein, Brenda E. Benson, Samuel E.C. Frank, Kristin A. Buss, Kelley E. Gunther, Koraly Pérez-Edgar, Giovanni A. Salum, Andrea Jackowski, Rodrigo A. Bressan, André Zugman, Kathryn A. Degnan, Courtney A. Filippi, Nathan A. Fox, Heather A. Henderson, Alva Tang, Selin Zeytinoglu, Anita Harrewijn, Manon H.J. Hillegers, Ryan L. Muetzel, Tonya White, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Carl E. Schwartz, Julia M. Felicione, Kathryn A. DeYoung, Alexander J. Shackman, Jason F. Smith, Rachael M. Tillman, Yvonne H.M. van den Berg, Antonius H.N. Cillessen, Karin Roelofs, Anna Tyborowska, Shirley Y. Hill, Marco Battaglia, Marco Tettamanti, Lea R. Dougherty, Jingwen Jin, Daniel N. Klein, Hoi Chung Leung, Suzanne N. Avery, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Jacqueline A. Clauss, James M. Bjork, John M. Hettema, Ashlee A. Moore, Roxann Roberson-Nay, Chelsea Sawyers, Elizabeth P. Hayden, Pan Liu, Matthew R.J. Vandermeer, H. Hill Goldsmith, Elizabeth M. Planalp, Thomas E. Nichols, Paul M. Thompson, P. Michiel Westenberg, Nic J.A. van der Wee, Nynke A. Groenewold, Dan J. Stein, Anderson M. Winkler & Daniel S. Pine (2026) - Structural Brain Correlates of Childhood Inhibited Temperament: An ENIGMA-Anxiety Mega-Analysis - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 65 (4), 577-604 - doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2025.06.026 - [link]
Julia O. Linke, Reut Naim, Simona P Haller, Parmis Khosravi, Beck Scheinberg, Meghan E Byrne, Anita Harrewijn, Ellen Leibenluft, Melissa A Brotman, Anderson M Winkler & Daniel S Pine (2026) - Reduced Threat-Related Neural Efficiency: A Possible Biomarker for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders - American Journal of Psychiatry, 48-57 - doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20241043
Miranda Lutz, Devi Lakhlani, Amanda E Guyer, Rianne Kok, Ingmar Franken, Nathan A Fox, Daniel S Pine & Anita Harrewijn (2026) - Associations between infant behavioral inhibition and social error processing in adulthood: A preliminary study - Unknown, 1-25
Marcelo Malbec, Anita Harrewijn, Ingmar H.A. Franken & Matthias J. Wieser (2025) - The uncertain path to reward: Neural mechanisms of intolerance of uncertainty in reward processing - Cortex, 192, 227-241 - doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2025.09.010 - [link]
Grace M. Stohr, Anita Harrewijn, Santiago Morales, Selin Zeytinoglu, Zoë E. Laky, Parmis Khosravi, Elise M. Cardinale, Nicole Lorenzo, Joel Stoddard, Daniel S. Pine, Nathan A. Fox, Melissa A. Brotman & Simone P. Haller (2025) - Adolescent cognitive control processing is associated with anxiety in young adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 25 (5), 1485-1495 - doi: 10.3758/s13415-025-01293-1 - [link]
Yara Toenders, Eveline Crone, Ryan Muetzel, Michelle Achterberg, Amine Bakkali, Neeltje van den Bedem, Eva Borkhuis, Caroline A. Figueroa, Ruth Van der Hallen, Anita Harrewijn, Pauline Jansen, Julian Schaap, Wanda Tempelaar, Danielle de Veld & Danielle Remmerswaal (2025) - A Healthy Start: Een Mentaal Gezonde Basis voor de Huidige Generatie Jongeren - Jeugd in Ontwikkeling - doi: 10.54447/JiO.19550
Peter A Kirk, Purnima Qamar, Andre Zugman, Rany Abend, Samuel Frank, Grace V Ringlein, Laura Jett, Gwyneth A L DeLap, Anita Harrewijn, Daniel S Pine & Katharina Kircanski (2025) - The Relations Among Anxiety, Movie-Watching, and in-Scanner Motion - Human Brain Mapping, 46 (4) - doi: 10.1002/hbm.70163 - [link]
Anita Harrewijn, Rosa H. Mulder, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Matthias J. Wieser & Pauline W. Jansen (2025) - Four distinct peer interaction variables as moderators of the fearful temperament-anxiety association, using data from the Generation R Study - JCPP Advances, 5 (1) - doi: 10.1002/jcv2.12254 - [link]