Aneta Brzezicka is an Associate Professor at SWPS University’s Faculty of Psychology in Warsaw and the Head of the Neurocognitive Research Center (NCRC). Professor Brzezicka is also an academic teacher as well as a Master’s and Doctoral thesis advisor. She obtained her first degree in cognitive psychology, but during her studies she became interested in the biological basis of the human mind and psyche and she began to study the brain. These days, she is both a psychologist and a neuroscientist, and she combines these two approaches in her work. During one of her research projects she examined how depression influences cognitive function, in particular the working memory and the alpha waves emitted by the brain when people perform various tasks. While analyzing data from this study, her Ph.D. student discovered that the so-called alpha asymmetry index, which was thought to be different (lower) in depressed versus non-depressed people, did not prove to be a good indicator of depression, as statistically significant differences in alpha activity could be found only in 13 out of 300 analysis. The findings were so significant, and the data was so solid that the research team was able to publish a paper in a prestigious journal eLife.
Sometimes you formulate your hypothesis, and then you get your data, you run your analysis and you see that everything you thought about the reality is not true.
Aneta Brzezicka
Ph.D. / Associate Professor
Hear Professor Brzezicka speak about:
Hard work and big rewards that are part of being a researcher.
Professor Brzezicka talks about her research in the field of neuroscience, which has challenged the previous assumption that the alpha asymmetry index, widely used for diagnosing depression, may in fact, not be indicative of this psychological disorder.
Read more about Professor Brzezicka's research
- No relationship between frontal alpha asymmetry and depressive disorders in a multiverse analysis of five studies
Aleksandra Kołodziej, Mikołaj Magnuski, Anastasia Ruban, Aneta Brzezicka (2021)., Published in: eLife
- Age-Related Cognitive Decline May Be Moderated by Frequency of Specific Food Products Consumption
Aleksandra Bramorska, Wanda Zarzycka, Wiktoria Podolecka, Katarzyna Kuc, and Aneta Brzezicka (2021), Published in: Nutrients
- Perceptual, Attentional, and Executive Functioning After Real-Time Strategy Video Game Training: Efficacy and Relation to In-Game Behavior
Paweł Dobrowolski, Maciek Skorko, Monika Myśliwiec, Natalia Kowalczyk-Grębska, Jakub Michalak, and Aneta Brzezicka (2021), Published in: Journal of Cognitive Enhancement
- Theta and Alpha Oscillatory Activity During Working Memory Maintenance in Long-Term Cannabis Users: The Importance of the Polydrug Use Context
Alicja Anna Binkowska1, Natalia Jakubowska, Klaudia Krystecka, Natalia Galant, Agnieszka Piotrowska-Cyplik, and Aneta Brzezicka, Published by: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- The impact of an anti-inflammatory probiotic supplementation on cognitive functioning in the elderly population – the moderating role of the dietary pattern and gut microbiota.
Research project
- Investigation of Information Coding in Short-Term Memory
Research project
- To train or to play? A comparison of traditional and gamified training approaches: The role of psychophysiological, cognitive and motivational factors in the improvement of executive functions
Research project