Miriam Mosing

Associate Professor (Docent) at the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Dr. Miriam Mosing is an Associate Professor and Docent at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and is leading the Behavior Genetics unit at the Cognitive Neuropsychology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main. Dr. Mosing also is an honourable Develop Research Momentum (DRM) Fellow at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia. 
 
Dr. Mosing's group investigates (1) expertise development (using music as a model behaviour), (2) the relationship between cultural engagement and health, and (3) factors related to quality of life throughout lifetime, using interdisciplinary approaches to quantify the interplay between genes and the environment. She is involved in a range of international consortia exploring genetic factors underlying complex traits, including the Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium, and the Musicality Genomics Consortium among others.
 
Dr. Mosing is a behavioural geneticist who completed her (under)graduate training in Neuroscience at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. She then conducted her PhD research on the genetics of complex behaviour, with a particular focus on Quality of Life and health in the second half of life at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the University of Queensland, Australia. After completing her PhD (December 2011), she held postdoc positions at the Neuroscience and the Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Departments at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, before she became an Assistant Professor in 2016 and an Associate Professor (Docent) in 2020. 

My main research interest is how genes and environment play together to produce individual differences in quality of life throughout lifespan as well as in skill acquisition. Why do some people fare better than others throughout life in terms of cognitive, mental and somatic health? Why are some people more successful and become experts in a given field? Understanding how genetic predispositions interplay with environmental factors will reveal the nature of phenotypic associations observed in daily life, which will not only allow us to identify truly causal and modifiable risk/protective factors (relevant environments), but will ultimately also help us to identify those who are at greatest risk or may benefit most from interventions.

*Major projects: *
* Gene-environment interplay underlying mental and somatic health related
outcomes throughout lifetime
* Gene-environment interplay underlying the acquisition of expertise and
skill learning using music as a model behaviour
I am particularly interested in the effect of potentially modifiable risk factors (environments) including cultural and social engagement, SES and
education, stress related factors, and sports and music training on a variety of health related outcomes including cognitive (general intelligence), mental and somatic health outcomes. My research aims at identifying causal environmental influences potentially suitable as starting points for interventions.
*Sub-projects: *
GE interplay underlying
* Cultural engagement in midlife and health outcomes and mortality late in life
* Birth-characteristics and health outcomes
* Modifiable risk factors for dementia
* Effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and mortality
* Stressful life events and mental and somatic health outcomes
* Subjective well-being and quality of life late in life
* SES-related factors and health outcomes

* Beliefs about the world and how the impact our health