Prof Dr Sabine C Herpertz studied human medicine in Bonn, obtained her doctorate in Frankfurt aM and habilitated in psychiatry and psychotherapy at RWTH Aachen University. Between 2002 and 2003, she held a professorship for Experimental Psychopathology at RWTH Aachen University before taking over the Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Rostock between 2003 and 2009. Since 2009, she has been Chair of General Psychiatry at Heidelberg University Hospital, Medical Director of the clinic of the same name and spokesperson for the Centre for Psychosocial Medicine. Her research focuses on the investigation of emotions and social functions in patients with personality disorders and trauma-associated disorders using experimental psychopathology and neuroscientific methods, in particular functional imaging. Reactive aggression is another focus of her research in personality disorders. She is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD) and has published many book chapters and journal articles on personality disorders. A second focus of her research is the development and evaluation of psychotherapeutic interventions.
The focus will be on the influences of a provocative context on social threat processing in AMD under different testosterone
levels. Specifically, the project aims to analyze the modulating function of context under testosterone application versus
suppression on threat sensitivity in healthy controls as well as patient groups. Additionally, we will determine the
influence of endogenous hormone variations (testosterone, oxytocin, estrogen and cortisol) on NVS in high versus low
aggressive patients in a large group of patients recruited in Q01. With this sample, we will try to identify multidimensional
biosignatures based on hormonal levels in combination with fMRI measures of amygdala and amygdala-prefrontal
connectivity, NVS measures by questionnaires, aggression measures and psychopathological data.
Identify specific neuronal mechanisms related to the NVS
and CS in female and male clinical samples with a history of early-life maltreatment (ELM) who exhibit externalizing,
aggressive psychopathologies as opposed to internalizing, non-aggressive psychopathologies. We will therefore explore
the interaction of the NVS and CS as well as the modulating effects of theory-of-mind (ToM) on the NVS and CS using a
series of fMRI and behavioral tasks. Furthermore, we will investigate the role of hormonal stress responses and will
use EMA to assess anger and aggression in everyday life. Thus, we will be able to combine behavioral phenotyping in
natural conditions of everyday life and neurobiological correlates of psychopathology in order to detect clinically relevant
biosignatures for AMD.
The central recruitment platform for collecting and curating a longitudinal dataset for studying individual aggression
dynamics related to the neural, cognitive-emotional, neurobiological, psychopathological and environmental factors in
patient groups.
Heidelberg University is Germany’s oldest university, founded in 1386.
Renowned for its research excellence and strong emphasis on the humanities,
natural sciences, and medicine, it consistently ranks among Europe’s top
universities. The university fosters a rich academic tradition and an
international outlook, attracting students and scholars from around the world.
