Short-term laboratory stressors such as the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) are used to investigate the acute stress response under experimentally controlled conditions. Studies typically report that approx. 20 – 30 % of participants do not show a substantial physiological stress response as measured by cortisol. Intriguingly, a lack of response does not appear to be simply coupled with a lack of subjective stress appraisal. Although exploring the influence of factors such as age, gender, and personality traits has provided some insight into variation of response, stress response variability, to date, cannot yet be successfully explained. This project aims to explore whether neural substrates, as measured by EEG, MRI, and fMRI can improve predictor models of the acute stress response in healthy individuals. The current investigation examines whether task-independent neural markers in neural networks associated with socio-emotional processing and regulation are indicative of the physiological response to stress. This work will be extended in the future to incorporate neural reactivity to tasks known to be associated with the stress networks, such as threat sensitivity and emotional regulation, in order to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the neural signatures of responses to acute psychosocial stressors.

Duration: 12/23 - 12/25
Funding: Internal
Contact: Lisa Haase & Gregor Domes
in collaboration with Prof. med. Winfried Willinek (BKT)

Triple X syndrome (47,XXX) occurs with a frequency of 1:800 to 1:1000 in girls, although it is possible that the syndrome is not diagnosed due to the often inconspicuous symptomatology. Although there are some anecdotal reports of abnormalities in social interaction (e.g., in the regulation of closeness and distance and the decoding of social signals), and affected individuals and their relatives report problems in everyday social life, no systematic studies regarding socio-cognitive and socio-affective characteristics are available to date. Therefore, the present study aims at the cognitive, affective and behavioral characterization of women with 47,XXX in the context of social interactions. Another goal is to explore neural structural correlates of the presumed socio-cognitive features using functional and structural MRI. In addition to morphometric investigations, the focus will also be on investigations of structural connectivity.

Duration: 01/21 - 11/23
Funding: Internal
Contact: Gregor Domes
in collaboration with Prof. med. Winfried Willinek (BKT)

We employ EEG to delve into the Binding and Retrieval in Action Control framework (BRAC, Frings et al., 2020). BRAC posits that (1) episodic feature binding and retrieval are key aspects of human action control, (2) binding and retrieval are distinct processes, and (3) both are influenced independently by top-down and bottom-up factors. This project pursues two strategies. Firstly, we aim to further clarify binding and retrieval by examining their electrophysiological (EEG) correlates during stimulus-response (S-R) binding. Secondly, we extend BRAC's applicability by applying the binding versus retrieval concept to a different experimental paradigm, specifically the visual search literature. We investigate intertrial priming effects in visual search to provide evidence for the separation of binding and retrieval in this context, broadening the explanatory scope of the BRAC framework.

Duration: 2022 - 2025
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Contact: Christian Frings & Bernhard Pastötter
in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Roland Pfister

We employ electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) from a Theory of Event Coding (TEC) perspective. Our research confirms that GTS is characterized by altered binding of sensory and motor codes in dominant sensorimotor routines, highlighting the significance of altered perception-action processing in GTS. This project links GTS's hyperbinding to the Binding and Retrieval in Action Control (BRAC) framework, extending beyond TEC by emphasizing the separation of feature binding and retrieval. We aim to ascertain whether hyperbinding in GTS results from aberrant event-file integration (binding) or event-file retrieval, or both. Given the potential heightened deviant processes with tactile stimuli in GTS, we compare binding and retrieval in vision and touch. This approach enhances our comprehension of GTS-control differences in cognitive processes related to binding effects, offering insights for targeted interventions.

Duration: 2022 - 2025
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Contact: Christian Frings & Nicolas Münster
in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Bäumer (Univ. Lübeck), Prof. Dr. Hommel (Univ. Dresden)