Research
Interoception
The main research focus of the Department of Clinical & Health Psychology is the construct of interoception. This describes the perception and processing of internal body signals such as heartbeat, breathing and the perception of hunger, satiety and thirst. Previous research has shown that interoception is a key piece of information and is linked to emotions, cognition and self-regulatory processes. As part of this, the department is working on various focal points, which are briefly described below by presenting various projects.
Measuring interoception
An important research objective is to shed light on various methodological procedures for recording interoception. These include objective parameters (e.g. heart perception, water load test, gastric perception using a food table, breathing resistance tests, etc.) and subjective parameters. In addition, the neuronal basis of interoception and its interaction with cognitive and emotional processes are investigated using electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Interoception, clinical disorders and health prevention
Interoception and emotional parameters are investigated in various clinical populations (including patients with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, anxiety patients, depressive patients) in a basic research-oriented manner or during the course of an intervention. Another exciting area of research is the change in interoception through stimulating procedures such as neurostimulation (TMS/tDCS) or trancutaneous vagus nerve stimulation. General factors influencing health such as diet, physical activity and stress are also being investigated in more detail and included in studies.
Depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, chronic pain
Our department is also looking at potential interoceptive mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of a variety of symptoms and clinical disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and chronic pain, to name but a few. Deciphering these mechanisms may shed light on new potential therapeutic targets for these disorders. In the area of eating research, for example, we are investigating changes in the perception of satiety as a possible basis for changes in eating behavior, taking into account psychological and physiological parameters.
Emotions and emotion regulation
One of the research interests of our department is to investigate the link between interoception and the processing of emotional stimuli at the self-report level as well as at the physiological and neurocognitive level. In addition, our department is also interested in the relationship between interoceptive processes and emotion regulation (i.e. the ability of individuals to modulate an emotion by using a strategy). Methods of neurostimulation or vagus nerve stimulation are used to study emotion processing and its regulation in interaction with bodily processes, including the influence of interoceptive processes on the developing emotion regulation of adolescents.
Stress and prevention of stress
In a current research project, we are investigating the extent to which a chatbot-based intervention can reduce the experience of stress through daily psychoeducation and exercises (e.g. breathing exercises). Furthermore, a current project is also focusing on the possible change in satiety and its perception after stress induction.
Cooperation partners and laboratories
We are currently collaborating with the Neurostimulation Section of the Department of Psychiatry at Ulm University Hospital under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Kammer, with the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy III (Department of Imaging, Prof. Dr. Grön), with the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Ulm University Hospital (Prof. Dr. med. Harald Gündel, Dr. Marc N. Jarczok, Dr. Katja Weimer), with the Institute for Distributed Systems at the University of Ulm (Echo Meißner, M. Sc. & Dr. Benjamin Erb), Labsitec at the University of Valencia, with Prof. Dr. Micah Allen at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, with Prof. Andreas Schwerdtfeger and Dr. Christian Rominger at the University of Graz and Prof. Richard Lane at the University of Arizona.
Our laboratories are located in rooms 47.1.227 and 47.0.235. They are equipped with various portable physiological measuring instruments as well as stationary devices such as high-resolution EEG, neurostimulation options (TMS and tDCS), and options for trancutaneous vagus nerve stimulation or pain stimulation.