Sudimac, Sonja

Postdoctoral Fellow

Center for Environmental Neuroscience

sudimac@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

Main Focus

My main research interests focus on how the environment shapes our brain, more specifically, how being exposed to nature and urban environment influences stress, emotions, and cognitive processes. I am especially interested in neural mechanisms underlying these effects, as well as in physiological processes during exposure to different environments. Using fMRI and physiological measures I seek to understand neural and physiological correlates of affective and cognitive effects of one-hour walk in nature versus urban environment, with an aim to influence on the creation of environments optimal for our physical and mental health.

Curriculum Vitae

2024 Dr. rer. nat. (Freie Universität Berlin)
2020 – 2024 Fellow of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE)
2019 MSc Cognitive Science (Technische Universität Kaiserslautern)
2016 MSc Educational Psychology (University of Belgrade)
2015 BSc Psychology (University of Belgrade)

Articles

Sudimac, S. & Kühn, S. (2024). Can a nature walk change your brain? Investigating hippocampal brain plasticity after one hour in a forest. Environmental Research, 119813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.119813
Sudimac, S., Sale, V. & Kühn, S. (2022). How nature nurtures: Amygdala activity decreases as the result of a one-hour walk in nature. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(11), 4446–4452. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01720-6
Sudimac, S. & Kühn S. (2022). A one-hour walk in nature reduces amygdala activity in women, but not in men. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:931905. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.931905
Cabiró, M. P., Sudimac, S., Stobbe, E., & Kühn, S. (2023). Urbanization is positively associated with global perceptual style. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 91, 102100. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494423001482
Sztuka, I. M., Örken, A., Sudimac, S., & Kühn, S. (2022). The other blue: Role of the sky in the perception of nature. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:932507. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.932507
Tawil, N., Sztuka, I. M., Pohlmann, K., Sudimac, S., & Kühn, S. (2021). The living space: Psychological well-being and mental health in response to interiors presented in virtual reality. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23), Article 12510. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312510

Book chapters

Beyer, M., Sudimac, S., Steininger, M. O., Kühn, S. (2024). Interplay Between Physical Environment and the Human Brain: A Review of MRI Research. Environmental Neuroscience, 31-70.