Lea J. Mertens is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Molecular Neuroimaging, headed by Prof. Gerhard Gründer, at the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) in Mannheim. Her main research interests lie in the therapeutic potential as well as biological and psychological mechanisms of psychoactive substances, with a particular focus on psychedelic drugs.
CV
Lea Julia Mertens received her M.Sc. in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience with a specialization in Neuropsychology from Maastricht University. During her thesis internship at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London she coordinated the Global Psychedelic Survey and wrote her Master’s thesis about functional connectivity changes after treatment with psilocybin in patients with treatment-resistant major depression, under the supervision of Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris.
Notable Research Papers
- Classical Psychedelics as Therapeutics in Psychiatry – Current Clinical Evidence and Potential Therapeutic Mechanisms in Substance Use and Mood Disorders (Mertens & Preller, 2021)
- Learning to let go: A cognitive-behavioral model of how psychedelic therapy promotes acceptance (Mertens, et al., 2020)
- Therapeutic mechanisms of psilocybin: Changes in amygdala and prefrontal functional connectivity during emotional processing after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (Mertens, et al., 2020)
Find more on ResearchGate or PubMed
In our database you will also find her as an author on many more papers.
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