Our research activities focus on the field „Affective Neuroscience and Emotion Modulation“ (Direction: Prof. Malek Bajbouj), the field „Neuroplasticity and Animal Models“ (Direction: Prof. Golo Kronenberg), and on clinical studies in the associated field „ADHD in Adults“ (Direction: Dr. Michael Colla). A further field in focus is stress-processing, metabolic syndrome and their effects on internal organs in affective disorders (Direction: Prof. Isabella Heuser).
Further information on the field „Affective Neuroscience and Emotion Modulation“ can be found here.
Further information on the field „Neuroplasticity and Animal Models“ can be found here.
Further information on the field „ADHD in Adults“ can be found here.
Although today several pharmacological treatment options exist for affective disorders, they have limited efficacy and tolerability. Therefore, the clinical necessity to develop more effective treatments with good tolerability is still of major relevance. In a number of national and international projects the research group focusses on the investigation of efficacy and tolerability of different augmentation strategies.
The effectiveness of Olanzapine as an „add-on“in treatment-resistant depression is currently being investigated in a placebo-controlled study.
Furthermore, combinations of a mood-stabilizer and atypical antipsychotic in patients with a bipolar disorder are being compared.
Several studies using neuroimaging techniques have been able to demonstrate changes in brain structure in patients with mood disorders. The question of whether antidepressant therapy can have have a positive effect on these changes is being examined in a study, in which patients are assessed with multiple MRIs of the brain, as well as electrophysiological and neuropsychological investgations during the course of their illness.
A special type of magnetic resonance imaging/tomography, the MR-spectroscopy, has enabled the representation of specific metabolites in the brain. Together with the PTB (Physical and Technical Federal Agency), we are investigating whether patients with affective disorders have alterations in specific brain areas.
The main focus of the ANEM research group is the modulation of emotion in pure scientific and in therapeutic settings. Nontherapeutic studies focus on the themes of emotion regulation, empathy and emotional learning and are mainly performed in the context of the excellence cluster "languages of emotion" and the Dahlem institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion (DINE). Therapeutically ANEM deals with a broad variety of antidepressant brain stimulation interventions comprising electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), direct current stimulation (DCS), magnetic seizure therapy (MST), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). Their neurobiological foundations are being investigated through neuroimaging, neurochemical and neurophysiological techniques. Together with other internation partners, out clinical is working towards the developemtn of a further antidepressant-acting brain stimulation technique called magnetic convulsive therapy. Additionally, long-term investigations into the efficacy of behavioural-therapy, pharmological and brain stimuation techniques in patients with depression are being examined. Please find further information here.
Dr. med. Lara Rzesnitzek
This multicentre project (funded by the BMBF; speaker: Isabella Heuser; in collaboration with ZI Mannheim and the University of Bonn) combines concepts and models of both Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Psychiatry and employs recently developed neuroscientific paradigms to study a well-established example of emotion-cognition coupling: the affective bias in depression.The term “bias” in this context implies a tendency to process information according to certain types of emotional valence. This biased information processing is essential for emotional vulnerability and represents within a clinical context the common basis of emotional pathology.
This research group has two main research focusses: first, the investigation of basic neurobiological mechanisms in ADHD using neuroimaging and neuropsychological approaches and second, improvement of therapeutic interventions. The reseach group is member of the German ADHD competence network.
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