Dr Amber Ruigrok

Research Associate

Amber has an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from Utrecht University and completed her PhD at the ARC investigating how foetal and pubertal hormones affect the structural development of the brain and conducted the first meta-analysis of sex differences in the brain.

Amber was the Task Lead on the Stakeholder Engagement Work Package of the AIMS-2-TRIALS project (Autism Innovative Medicine Studies-2-Trials). She is interested in education and public engagement and is also a Newton Trust Teaching Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College.

Previously, Amber was awarded the William Binks Fellowship in Autism Neuroscience to support her postdoc where she investigated neural sex differences in white matter connectivity in autistic males and females using DWI (Diffusion Weighted Imaging). This work was done in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry in Kings College London as part of the UK MRC AIMS study, funded by the MRC.

Amber also coordinated the Cambridge Prenatal Hormones Study, funded by the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Autism Research Trust. She also worked on the EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP).

Research interests

Amber’s research focuses on biological mechanisms behind differences in brain development, and sex differences in brain structure, cognition and mental health in autistic and non-autistic individuals.

Selected publications

• Autism and Family Involvement in the Right to Education in the EU: Policy Mapping in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, Molecular Autism 10, 43 (2019), R Van Kessel, A Roman-Urrestarazu, A Ruigrok, R Holt, M Commers,  R Hoekstra, K Czabanowska, C Brayne, S Baron-Cohen
• Enhancement of indirect functional connections with shortest path length in the adult autistic brain, Human Brain Mapping 40, 5354-5369 (2019), X Guo, T Simas, M C Lai, M V Lombardo, B Chakrabarti, A N Ruigrok, E T Bullmore, S Baron‐Cohen, H Chen, J Suckling, MRC AIMS Consortium
• Autism and the Right to Education in the EU: Policy Mapping and Scoping Review of Nordic Countries Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, Molecular Autism 10, 44 (2019), R Van Kessel, S Walsh, A N Ruigrok, R Holt, A Yliherva, E Kärnä, I Moilanen, E Hjörne, S T Johansson, D Schendel, L Pedersen
• Large-scale analyses of the relationship between sex, age and intelligence quotient heterogeneity and cortical morphometry in autism spectrum disorder, Molecular Psychiatry (2019), S A Bedford, M T M Park, G A Devenyi, S Tullo, J Germann, R Patel, E Anagnostou, S Baron-Cohen, E T Bullmore, L R Chura, M C Craig, C Ecker, D L Floris, R J Holt, R Lenroot, J P Lerch, M V Lombardo, D G M Murphy, A Raznahan, A N V Ruigrok, E Smith, M D Spencer, J Suckling, M J Taylor, A Thurm, MRC AIMS Consortium, M-C Lai, M M Chakravarty
• The oxytocin receptor gene predicts brain activity during an emotion recognition task in autism, Molecular Autism 10, 12 (2019), F Uzefovsky, R A I Bethlehem, S Shamay-Tsoory, A Ruigrok, R Holt, M Spencer, L Chura, V Warrier, B Chakrabarti, E Bullmore, J Suckling, D Floris, S Baron-Cohen