Pascal Vrtička
Dr Pascal Vrtička is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex in Colchester, United Kingdom. Previously, he studied biochemistry and neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). He then held several research positions at Stanford University (Palo Alto, USA) and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Leipzig, Germany). His research focuses on the neurobiological basis of social interaction using various neuroimaging methods—primarily functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for single individuals and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning for interacting pairs (adult and parent-child dyads). In doing so, he is particularly interested in interindividual differences in relationship quality from an attachment theory perspective. Website: pvrticka.com; X: @PVrticka; Bluesky: @pvrticka.bsky.social