Lorenza Colzato

Lorenza S. Colzato (born 20 September 1974) is an Italian cognitive psychologist whose research "aims to understand the neural and neuromodular underpinnings of cognitive control in humans."

Colzato was born in Bolzano, Italy. She studied cognitive and clinical psychology at the University of Padova, Italy, in 1999. She then moved to Leiden University where she obtained her PhD degree (2005) under the supervision of Prof. Lex van der Heijden. Since 2006, she has been an assistant professor at the Cognitive Psychology Unit of Leiden University (Cognitieve Psychologie). She is also a psychotherapist.

Colzato's research is focused on how thinking and creativity are shaped. Her research often touches on popular topics and the resulting papers are discussed in popular media: examples include studies on exercise and creativity, marijuana use and creativity, the effect of odors on trust, the effect of meditation on creative thinking, and the existence of gaydar.

• Colzato,L.S., Jongkees, B.J., Sellaro, R., van den Wildenberg, W., & Hommel, B. (2014). Eating to stop: Tyrosine supplementation enhances inhibitory control but not response execution. Neuropsychologia, 62, 398-402. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.12.027
• Colzato, L.S., Szapora, A., Lippelt, D. & Hommel, B. (2014). Prior meditation practice modulates performance and strategy use in convergent- and divergent- thinking problems. Mindfulness. doi:10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9
• Colzato, L. S., Waszack, F. Nieuwenhuis, S. T., Posthuma, D., & Hommel, B. (2010). The flexible mind is associated with the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism: Evidence for a role of dopamine in the control of task switching. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2764-2768.
• Colzato, L. S., van Leeuwen, P.J.A., van den Wildenberg, W., & Hommel, B. (2010). DOOM’d to switch: Superior cognitive flexibility in players of first person shooter games. Front. Psychol, 1(8), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00008
• Sellaro, R., Derks, B., Nitsche, M.A., Hommel, B., van den Wildenberg, W.P.M., van Dam, K., Colzato, L.S. (2015). Reducing prejudice through brain stimulation, Brain Stimulation, doi:10.1016/j.brs.2015.04.003
• Steenbergen, L., Sellaro, R., Stock, A.K., Beste, C., & Colzato, L.S. (2015). Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) enhances response selection during action cascading processes. European Neuropsychopharmacology. doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.03.015
• Steenbergen, L., Sellaro, R., van Hemert, S., Bosch, J.A., & Colzato, L.S. (2015). A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of multispecies probiotics on cognitive reactivity to sad mood. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2015.04.003