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Persistent symptoms after SARS-Cov-2 infection affect a substantial number of Covid-19 survivors (Koczulla et al., 2021, Chen et al., 2022). Common symptoms include fatigue, headaches, and respiratory symptoms, as well as psychological distress and cognitive symptoms (Ceban et al., 2022; Crivelli et al., 2022; Koczulla et al., 2021). Some studies have investigated changes in brain structure (Dounaud et al., 2022; Fleischer et al., 2022) or resting-state connectivity (Kapoor et al., 2022; Silva et al., 2021; Voruz et al., 2022) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but to our knowledge, no study to date has applied task-based functional MRI. In the present study, we apply an emotional stroop task using bodily symptom-related and fear-related words (Witthöft et al., 2013) and a rewarded flanker task (adapted from Hübner et al., 2021) to investigate neural signatures of cognitive and emotional processing in post-COVID patients and healthy controls.

A lack of empathy is closely related to antisocial behavior and criminal offending. Which is why, sentencing decisions, for instance, depend in part on how much empathy an offender expresses during trial, or addressing empathy deficits is a critical component of many offender intervention programs. An accurate assessment of empathy is therefore crucial within the justice system. Yet, only little research has been conducted to date on whether – and to what extend – empathy measures are susceptible to malingering. With this project, we aim to answer the question as to how vulnerable various empathy measures (i.e., self-report, experimental, psychophysiological, and implicit) are to faking good by using a randomized double-blind design. Furthermore, we will examine whether individuals who malinger can be accurately identified with both established social desirability scales and a newly developed empathy malingering scale. Our findings will help improve the accuracy of empathy assessments, particularly in situations where individuals have an incentive to exaggerate their level of empathy.

Empathy – the ability to experience what another person feels – is critical to the functioning of social interactions. So much so that empathizing with others in distress is an automatic process that does not require deliberate perspective taking. A deficit in this default response is associated with antisocial behavior and can be particularly observed in individuals with psychopathy. However, despite this well-established link between psychopathy and empathy deficits, it is still unclear whether psychopathic individuals lack empathy altogether or whether they merely require the activation of a more deliberate and conscious process to empathize with another person. Previous fMRI studies suggest the latter, as being instructed to imagine oneself in the situation of a distressed person seems to induce empathy at the neural level. However, whether this also occurs at a behavioral and psychophysiological level remains uncertain. With this project, we aim to answer the question whether different perspective-taking instructions (i.e., imagine-self, imagine-other, remain-objective, and no instructions) influence the experience of empathy on a behavioral and psychophysiological level in individuals with and without psychopathy. The results will shed light on the emotional deficits in psychopathy and may help improve the treatment of this severe personality disorder.

In this fMRI-project, we investigate aspects of risk perception and behavior in healthy participants, measured twice in a four week period. In addition to analyses of behavioral and questionnaire data, we will also perform activity, connectivity and reliability analyses of fMRI data. Furthermore, potential associations between the level of drug and alcohol use, and personality measures including impulsivity, emotional regulation, schizotypy and social anxiety are examined. The findings of this reliability project will add to our understanding of risk perception and behavior and serve as a basis to determine relevant fMRI parameters for subsequent studies with clinical samples.

In this project, we investigate levels of expressed empathy and emotion regulation capacities among inpatients of a forensic psychiatry in Germany. Matched healthy controls from the general population are recruited and compared to forensic inpatients on a variety of psychological measures, including both, questionnaires and experimental paradigms. In addition, potential associations between empathy/emotion dysregulation and psychopathy, impulsivity, and alexithymia are examined. Our project comprises two parts: (1) a cross-sectional comparison (= this project); and (2) a longitudinal study that aims to determine whether treatment has a positive impact on inpatients’ level of empathy and use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies (= separate project on OSF). The findings will add to our understanding of empathy and emotion dysregulation among forensic inpatients and help to improve treatment in forensic facilities.

In this fMRI-EMA-project, we investigate aspects of risk perception and behavior in inpatients with schizophrenia and alcohol use disorder and healthy participants. Participants complete six sessions, three prior to interventions, one post, and two more after 4 weeks EMI (Ecological Momentary Intervention with risk-specific and risk unspecific interventions). Patients are separated for interventions for risk behavior, as well as control interventions. Behavioral and questionnaire data, EMA data, activity, connectivity and reliability of fMRI data will be analyzed. The findings will add to our understanding of risk perception and behavior and will help improving the treatment of schizophrenia and alcohol use disorder.

Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder that is characterized by profound emotional deficits. Particularly striking is the lack of empathy. Several studies suggest that individuals with psychopathy do not only exhibit an empathy deficit, but may also show impaired emotion processing, as indicated by emotion dysregulation and alexithymia. This online study aims to assess the interrelationship between these three constructs (i.e., psychopathy, empathy, and emotion processing) by using a structural equation model. In addition, we investigate the association between empathy, emotion processing and health anxiety, because recent studies suggest a moderating role of emotion processing for the relationship between empathy and health anxiety.

Dieses Projekt sammelt bestehende und potentielle Maßnahmen, die es Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern erleichtern, die Folgen der Pandemie abzumildern. Beiträge und Diskussionen sind gerne willkommen. Wenn wir feststellen oder von anderen darauf hingewiesen werden, dass ein konkretes Angebot, zu dem wir einen Link bereitgestellt haben, eine zivil- oder strafrechtliche Verantwortlichkeit auslöst, werden wir den Verweis auf dieses Angebot aufheben.

Longitudinal and cross-sectional behavioral and fMRI assessment of social-cognitive processes during in-patient treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that is often associated with a chronic course of illness and psychosocial impairments (Tandon et al., 2009). Patients suffer not only from diagnostically relevant psychotic symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinations, but also from cognitive and social deficits (Mier & Kirsch, 2015). Treatment guidelines for schizophrenia include medication and psychotherapeutic interventions (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Nervenheilkunde [DGPPN], 2019). Despite the application of evidence-based treatment, disease outcome is highly heterogeneous and individual prognosis is difficult (DGPPN, 2019; Jääskeläinen et al., 2013). In the current project, we plan to assess changes in social cognition and associated neural activity and connectivity in schizophrenia patients in response to in-patient treatment. The project consists of two interrelated study parts. The first part (study 1) involves a comprehensive psychopathological assessment, a brief experimental paradigm investigating decision-making, and questionnaires (described in detail in section “Variables”). The first assessment timepoint (study1 T1) takes place shortly after admission to a psychosis ward and will be repeated towards the end of the in-patient treatment (study1 T2). The first timepoint of the second study part (study 2) is also scheduled at the beginning of the in-patient treatment as soon as fMRI assessment is feasible (study2 T1). The second timepoint takes place six months after discharge from the hospital (study2 T2). Each timepoint of study 2 includes an fMRI assessment involving three different experimental paradigms (in randomized order). Emotion recognition is investigated using an adaptive task design (Mier et al., 2014), regulation of positive and negative emotions is assessed with aversive, positive and neutral scene images (e.g. Mak et al., 2009; Ochsner et al., 2002), and working memory is assessed using the n-back task (Callicott, 1999). Furthermore, resting-state heart rate is recorded, and participants are asked to complete further questionnaires. At follow-up, the psychopathological assessment is repeated additionally.

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