Albert Postma obtained his PhD at Nijmegen University in 1991, PhD thesis: “Self-correction and stuttering: on linguistic repair processes in disfluencies of normal speakers and stutterers”. Subsequently he moved to Utrecht University, as an assistant professor. He now holds the chair of Clinical Neuropsychology, Utrecht University. He has been head of the department of Experimental Psychology from 2010 until 30-9-2017.

Over the past two decades, his research has focused on spatial cognition and human memory in both healthy and brain damaged individuals. Much of this work has been inspired by the EU NEST Fp6 program “Finding your way in the world – on the neurocognitive basis of spatial memory and orientation in humans” (Wayfinding) for which Albert Postma was coordinator. Another line of his spatial cognition research has focused on multisensory space and what happens to spatial cognitive abilities after sensory deprivation (blindness; deafness).

An overview of spatial cognition research, both in Utrecht and worldwide, can be found here:

 Postma, Albert, & van der Ham, Ineke J. M. (Eds.)  (2016). Neuropsychology of Space. Spatial Functions of the human brain. San Diego: Academic Press.

https://www.elsevier.com/books/neuropsychology-of-space/postma/978-0-12-801638-1

Albert Postma leads the Memory & Space lab. In the Memory & Space lab research is conducted on spatial cognition & navigation, and on episodic memory and memory disorders. This includes neuroimaging studies on the use of egocentric and allocentric spatial reference frames, studies on spatial language usage in blind and sighted individuals, and impairments in episodic and prospective memory after stroke.

 Positions:

-       2009 – now. Full professor ‘Experimental Psychology: Clinical Neuropsychology’, Utrecht University

-       2010 – 2015 Full professor ‘Clinical Neuropsychology’  Experimental Psychology Utrecht University & Neurology, University Medical Centre Utrecht

 -       2006 – 2009. Full professor ‘Experimental Psychology: Memory’ Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University.

 -       2004 - 2006. Endowed professor ‘Neurocognitive and clinical psychological aspects of spatial cognition and memory’ Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University

 -       2015 -  now. Head of research committee, Korsakov Centre Slingedael, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

-       2010 – 30/9/2017. Head of Department Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University.

Albert Postma has been editor for the memory and learning section of Acta Psychologica for several years (2002 - 2012), as well as guest editor for special issues on spatial cognition of Neuropsychologia and Acta Psychologica, and invited editor for Cognitive Processing (from 2004 - now).

-       2003 – 2017. Coordinator of the Cognitive Neuroscience track in the International Research Master Neuroscience and Cognition, U.U.

-       1/9/2020. Head of department Psychology, Faculty Social Sciences, Utrecht University.

Projects & Grants (selection):

EU PEOPLE MARIE CURIE ACTIONS Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) Call: FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF “SpacePerAction”.  Postdoc: Dr Francesco Ruotolo. 2014 - 2016. (hosting investigator  of the receiving institute)

EU Marie Curie grant FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF Proposal n° 254446 “Multisensory integration in the cognitive representation of space”. Postdoc: Dr. Franco Delogu. 2010 -2012. (hosting investigator  of the receiving institute)

ESF CNCC project “Unconscious boundaries of mind: research into the extended mind hypothesis” – International collaboration Tjeerd Jellema, Hull; Albert Postma, U.U.; Johan Wagemans, Leuven. (original PI was Dr. Ilse Verstijnen). 2007 - 2012.

NWO Evolution & Behaviour (together with Prof. Dr. R van Wezel, Biology, UU): The evolution of Spatial Abstraction and Categorization”. 2006 – 2010.

Grant NEST Fp6 call “What it means to be human?” - New and Emerging Science and Technology – of European Community 6th Framework Programme (No 12959): “Finding your way in the world - on the neurocognitive basis of spatial memory and orientation in humans”.  International collaboration including: Prof. Albert Postma (coordinator),  Prof Alain Berthoz, Paris, Prof. Michel Denis, Paris; Prof Cecilia Guariglia, Rome; Prof Heinirch Buelthoff MPI, Tuebingen, Prof. Hanspeter Mallot, University Tuebingen; Prof Neil Burgess, ICN London. 2005 - 2008.

NWO Pionier-Program Grant (NWO, No. 440-20-000) "Spatial Cognition: development, underlying representations, and neural basis" 2000 – 2007

Publications & PhD theses supervised (selection)

Egocentric and allcoentric spatial reference frames

Sterken, Y., Postma, A., De Haan, E.H.F. and Dingemans, A. (1999). Egocentric and exocentric spatial judgements of visual displacement.  Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52,  1047- 1055.

Neggers, S.F.W.,  Van der Lubbe, R.H.J.,  Ramsey, N.F., and Postma, A. (2006).  Interactions between ego- and allocentric neuronal representations of space. Neuroimage, 31(1), 320 – 331.

Ruotolo, Francesco, van der Ham, Ineke, Postma, Albert, Ruggiero, Gennaro & Iachini, Tina (2015). How coordinate and categorical spatial relations combine with egocentric and allocentric reference frames in a motor task - Effects of delay and stimuli characteristics. Behavioural Brain Research, 284, 167-178.

Ruotolo, F., Ruggiero, G., Raemaekers, M., Iachini, T.  van der Ham, I.J.M. ,  Fracasso, A. &  Postma, A. (2019). Neural correlates of egocentric and allocentric frames of reference combined with metric and non-metric spatial relations, Neuroscience, 409, 235-252, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.04.021.

Yvonne Sterken (1997) Frames of reference in visual localisation. (PhD thesis)

Navigation

Van Asselen, Kessels, R.P.C., Neggers, S.F.W., Kappelle, L.J.,  Frijns, C.J.M. and  Postma, A. (2006). Neural correlates of human wayfinding in stroke patients. Brain Research, 1067, 229-238.

Oudman, E., Van der Stigchel, S., Nijboer, T. C., Wijnia, J. W., Seekles, M. L., & Postma, A. (2014). Route learning in Korsakoff's syndrome: Residual acquisition of spatial memory despite profound amnesia. Journal of Neuropsychology. doi:10.1111/jnp.12058

Claessen, Michiel H G, Visser-Meily, Johanna M A, de Rooij, Nicolien K, Postma, Albert & van der Ham, Ineke J M  (2015). A Direct Comparison of Real-World and Virtual Navigation Performance in Chronic Stroke Patients. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society,  1-11.

Michiel Claessen (2017). Lost after stroke: Theory, assessment, and rehabilitation of navigation impairment.  (PhD thesis)

Spatial memory

Postma, A., Kessels, R.P.C., and van Asselen, M. (2008). How the brain remembers and forgets where things are: The neurocognition of object location memory. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 1339 – 1345.

Postma, Albert, & van der Ham, Ineke J. M. (2016). Chapter 7 - Keeping Track of Where Things Are in Space: The Neuropsychology of Object Location Memory. In Albert Postma & Ineke J. M. van der Ham (Eds.), Neuropsychology of Space. Spatial Functions of the human brain (pp. 231-265). San Diego: Academic Press.

Marieke van Asselen (2005). Neurocognition of spatial memory: Studies in patients with acquired brain damage and healthy participants. (PhD thesis)

Space and the senses (and sensory deficits)

Postma, A., Zuidhoek, S., Noordzij, M.L., and Kappers, A.M.L. (2007). Differences between early blind, late blind and blindfolded sighted people in haptic spatial configuration learning and resulting memory traces. Perception, 36(8) 2007, 1253-1265.

Van der Lubbe, R.H.J., Van Mierlo, C.M. and Postma, A. (2010). The involvement of occipital cortex in early blind in auditory and tactile duration discrimination tasks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1541–1556.

van Dijk R, Kappers AML, Postma A (2013) Haptic Spatial Configuration Learning in Deaf and Hearing Individuals. PLoS One 8 (4):e61336. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061336

van der Stoep, Nathan, Postma, Albert, & Nijboer, Tanja C. W. (2017). Chapter 4 - Multisensory Perception and the Coding of Space. In Albert Postma & Ineke J. M. van der Ham (Eds.), Neuropsychology of Space. Spatial Functions of the human brain. (pp. 123-158). San Diego: Academic Press.

Marijn Struiksma (2011). On the language of space: Neurocognitive studies in blind and sighted individuals. (PhD thesis)

Rick van Dijk (2012). Cognitive perspectives on deafness. (PhD thesis)

Nathan van der Stoep (2015).  Into the depths of spatial attention and multisensory integration. (PhD thesis)

Hemispheric specialization for distinct classes of spatial information

Postma, A., Huntjens, R.J.C.,  Meuwissen, M., and Laeng, B. (2006). The time course of spatial memory processing in the two hemispheres. Neuropsychologia, 44, 1914-1918.

Van der Ham, I.J.M., Raemaekers, M.,  van Wezel, R.J.A, Oleksiak, A., and Postma,A. (2009). Categorical and coordinate spatial relations in working memory: An fMRI study. Brain Research, 1297, 70-79.

Van der Ham, I.J.M., Postma, A., Laeng, B. (2014). Lateralized perception: The role of attention in spatial relation processing. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 45, pp. 142-148.

Ineke van der Ham (2010). Thinking left and right: Neurocognitive studies on spatial relation processing. (PhD thesis)

Anna Oleksiak (2010). Spatial information processing in humans and monkeys. (PhD thesis)

Development of spatial cognition

Bullens, J, Igloi, K., Berthoz, A., Postma, A., and Rondi-Reig, L.  (2010). Developmental time course of the acquisition of sequential egocentric and allocentric navigation strategies. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107, 337 – 350.

Bullens, J. ,Klugkist, I., and Postma, A. (2011).  The role of local and distal landmarks in the development of object location memory. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1515 – 1524.

Jessie Bullens (2009). How children learn to deal with space: developmental studies on spatial memory. (PhD thesis)

Episodic memory

Huntjens, R.J.C., Postma, A.,  Peters, M., Woertman, L. & van der Hart, O. (2003). Inter-identity amnesia for neutral, episodic information in dissociative identity disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 112, 290-297.

Schoo, L.A., van Zandvoort, M.J., Biessels, G.J., Kappelle, L.J., Postma, A., and de Haan, E.H. (2011). The posterior parietal paradox: Why do fMRI and lesions studies on episodic memory produce conflicting results? Journal of Neuropsychology, 5, 15 – 38.

Biesbroek J.M., van Zandvoort, M.J., Kappelle, L.J., Schoo, L.A., Kuijf H.J., P.C., Velthuis, B.K., Biessels, G.J., Postma A. (2015). Distinct anatomical correlates of discriminability and criterion setting in verbal recognition memory revealed by lesion-symptom mapping. Human Brain Mapping, 4, 1992-1303.

Linda Schoo (2014).  Episodic memory and self-insight. Taking it personally”. (PhD thesis)

Prospective memory

Van den Berg, E., Kant, N., and Postma, A. (2012). Remember to buy milk on the way home! A meta-analytic review of prospective memory in mild cognitive impairment and dementia. JINS, 18, 1-11.

Kant, N., Van den Berg, E., van Zandvoort, M.J.E., Frijns, C.J.M., Kappelle, L.J. & Postma, A. (2014). Functional correlates of prospective memory in stroke. Neuropsychologia, 60, 77-83.

Lloyd, B., Oudman, E., Altgassen, M., & Postma, A. (2019) Smartwatch aids time-based prospective memory in Korsakoff syndrome: a case study, Neurocase, 25:1-2, 21-25, DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2019.1602145

Neeltje Kant (2017). Looking back, thinking ahead: A neuropsychological view on time, space and prospective memory. (PhD thesis)

Neuropsychology in general

Oudman E, Postma A, Van der Stigchel S, Appelhof B, Wijnia JW, Nijboer TCW (2014). The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is superior to the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) in detection of Korsakoff's syndrome. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 28(7), 1123 – 1132.

Ruis, C., van den Berg, E., van Stralen, H.E., Huenges Wajer, I.,  Biessels, G.J., Kappelle, L.J., Postma, A., and van Zandvoort, M.J.E. (2014). Symptom Checklist 90-Revised in neurological outpatients. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 36(2), 170 – 177.

Carla Ruis (2014). Reflections on clinical neuropsychology: a multifaceted approach. (PhD thesis)