Natália is a former professional table tennis player who now works in high-performance sport as both a coach and sport psychologist. Her academic path has taken her across Europe, from studying Psychology in Slovakia and Spain to completing a Master's degree in Sport & Exercise Psychology in the UK.

During her visit to the HRV Lab, Natália also gave a presentation on applying the HRV Test Battery to table tennis, discussing how psychophysiological assessment could be transferred to the demands of the sport.

With experience from both the athlete's and practitioner's perspective, she is particularly interested in translating scientific knowledge into everyday training and competition.
Her goal is to make evidence-based psychological and psychophysiological approaches practical, meaningful, and relevant for athletes and coaches.

Thank you for visiting the lab and for the stimulating exchange, Natália!

Jente Depoorter is a doctoral researcher at Ghent University, specializing in emotion regulation, motivation, and psychophysiological markers of stress and performance, including HRV. She obtained her M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology at Ghent University. She is also a certified clinical psychologist and CBT psychotherapist, which informs her interdisciplinary perspective on emotional and physiological processes.

Jente visited our group at the end of November 2025, contributing to experimental work examining HRV-based indicators under cognitive and emotional challenge. She is set to complete her PhD next year, and we look forward to celebrating this milestone with her.

Carla Alfonso completed her B.Sc. in Neuroscience at King's College London and her Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. We congratulate Carla on successfully completing her PhD at the university's Sport Psychology Laboratory. Carla's research focuses on heart rate variability (HRV) and lifestyle factors, with a particular emphasis on their relationship to and application within athletic performance. During her visit to our group, she contributed expertise on HRV methodology and performance-related psychophysiological analysis.

Rabeea Maqsood obtained her M.Sc. in Environment and Human Health from the Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom. She is currently a PhD candidate at Bournemouth University, where her doctoral research investigates the impact of combat-related traumatic injuries and heart rate variability in UK military veterans and service personnel. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, and she maintains a strong research interest in using HRV as a marker for cardiovascular disease risk. During her time with our group, Rabeea supported projects focused on applied HRV monitoring and psychophysiological health assessment.

František Lörinczi is a doctoral researcher in Sport Sciences at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Comenius University in Bratislava, where he also completed his M.Sc. in Strength and Conditioning and Physical Education Teaching. His research focuses on the role of breathing in sport performance and health, especially the effects of specific breathing interventions like hypoventilation training, nasal breathing, or hyperventilation on acute responses and long-term adaptations.

During his visit to our group in Cologne, František broadened his expertise in HRV and psychophysiological assessment methods. He aims to incorporate these approaches into future research on breathing interventions and athletic performance, while also strengthening collaboration between our research labs.