Biography
Dr Yara Toenders is a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University. Her research focusses on mental health and brain development in adolescents. In the SYNC lab she uses longitudinal data to study mood, sleep and brain structure in young people.
Yara previously obtained her PhD at the University of Melbourne, where she studied depression onset in young people, and the neural correlates associated with depression.
Research interests: Mental health, Brain development, Adolescence, Sleep
Onderzoeksinteresses: Mentaal welzijn, Hersenontwikkeling, Adolescentie, Slaap
Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Researcher | Clinical Psychology
- toenders@essb.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Josh Nguyen, Dom Dwyer, Yara J Toenders, Scott D Tagliaferri, Laura S van Velzen, Scott R Clark, Isabelle Scott, Simon Hartmann, Johanna T W Wigman, Ashleigh Lin, Andrew D Thompson, Cassandra M J Wannan, Caroline X Gao, Stephen J Wood, G Paul Amminger, Alison R Yung, Nikolaos Koutsouleris, Jessica A Hartmann, Hok Pan Yuen, Christopher G Davey, Angelica Ronald, Patrick D McGorry, Christel Middeldorp, Barnaby Nelson & Lianne Schmaal (2025) - Predicting the First Onset of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescents Using Multimodal Risk Factors: A Four-Year Longitudinal Study - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2025.07.006
- Laura K M Han, Yara J Toenders, Xueyi Shen, Yuri Milaneschi, Heather C Whalley, Philipp G Sämann, Til Andlauer, Jochen Bauer, Klaus Berger, Tiana Borgers, James H Cole, Udo Dannlowski, Kira Flinkenflügel, Hans J Grabe, Oliver Gruber, Tim Hahn, Paul J Hamilton, Sean N Hatton, Marco Hermesdorf, Ian Hickie, Jan Homann, Tilo J Kircher, Bernd Krämer, Anna Kraus, Axel Krug, Christina M Lill, Sarah E Medland, Susanne Meinert, Alana Panzenhagen, Brenda W J H Penninx, Nic J A van der Wee, Marie-José van Tol, Uwe Völker, Henry Völzke, Antoine Weihs, Katharina Wittfeld, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Neda Jahanshad, Paul M Thompson, Elena Pozzi & Lianne Schmaal (2025) - Lifestyle, Early-life, and Genetic Health Risk Factors Underlying the Brain Age Gap: A Mega-Analysis Across 3,934 Individuals from the ENIGMA MDD Consortium - bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology - doi: 10.1101/2025.05.09.653064
- Janna Cousijn, Yara J Toenders, Anne Marije Kaag, Francesca Filbey & Emese Kroon (2025) - The role of sex in the association between cannabis use disorder and resting-state functional connectivity - Neuropsychopharmacology, 50 (6), 991-999 - doi: 10.1038/s41386-025-02078-3 - [link]
- Laura S van Velzen, Lejla Colic, Zuriel Ceja, , Maria R Dauvermann, Luca M Villa, Hannah S Savage, Yara J Toenders, Niousha Dehestani, Alyssa H Zhu, Adrian I Campos, Lauren E Salminen, Ingrid Agartz, Nina Alexander, Rosa Ayesa-Arriola, Elizabeth D Ballard, Nerisa Banaj, Carlotta Barkhau, Zeynep Başgöze, Jochen Bauer, Francesco Benedetti, Klaus Berger, Bianca Besteher, Katharina Brosch, Manuel Canal-Rivero, Simon Cervenka, Romain Colle, Colm G Connolly, Emmanuelle Corruble, Philippe Courtet, Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, Kathryn R Cullen, Udo Dannlowski, Jeremy Deverdun, Ana M Diaz-Zuluaga, Lorielle M F Dietze, Jennifer W Evans, Negar Fani, Kira Flinkenflügel, Naomi P Friedman, Ian H Gotlib, Nynke A Groenewold, Dominik Grotegerd, Tomas Hajek, Alexander S Hatoum, Marco Hermesdorf, Ian B Hickie, Yoshiyuki Hirano, Tiffany C Ho & Meng Li (2024) - Transdiagnostic alterations in white matter microstructure associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviours in the ENIGMA Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours consortium - doi: 10.1101/2024.11.07.24316876
- Yara J. Toenders, Marleen H.M. de Moor, Renske van der Cruijsen, Kayla Green, Michelle Achterberg & Eveline A. Crone (2024) - Within-person biological mechanisms of mood variability in childhood and adolescence - Human Brain Mapping, 45 (11) - doi: 10.1002/hbm.26766 - [link]
- Yara J Toenders, Hannah Dorsman, Renske van der Cruijsen & Eveline A Crone (2024) - Developing body estimation in adolescence is associated with neural regions that support self-concept - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 19 (1) - doi: 10.1093/scan/nsae042 - [link]
- Yara J Toenders, Kayla H Green, Lysanne W Te Brinke, Renske van der Cruijsen, Suzanne van de Groep & Eveline A Crone (2024) - From developmental neuroscience to policy: A novel framework based on participatory research - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 67 - doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101398 - [link]
- Yara J. Toenders, Renske van der Cruijsen, Jana Runze, Suzanne van de Groep, Lara Wierenga & Eveline A. Crone (2024) - Mood variability during adolescent development and its relation to sleep and brain development - Scientific Reports, 14 (1) - doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-59227-9 - [link]
- E Kroon, Y J Toenders, L N Kuhns, J Cousijn & F Filbey (2024) - Resting state functional connectivity in dependent cannabis users: The moderating role of cannabis attitudes - Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 256, 111090 - doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.111090 - [link]
- L van Drunen, Y J Toenders, L M Wierenga & E A Crone (2023) - Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on structural brain development in early adolescence - Scientific Reports, 13 (1), 1-14 - doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32754-7 - [link]
