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RWTH Aachen

RWTH Aachen University is one of Europe’s leading institutions for science and engineering education. Renowned for its strong emphasis on research and innovation, RWTH Aachen collaborates closely with industry and is part of the prestigious IDEA League. The university offers a wide range of programs and is known for its cutting-edge facilities and interdisciplinary approach to solving global challenges.

The Faculty of Medicine at RWTH was founded in 1966 as the last of the current 9 faculties at RWTH. In the early years and even after the move to today’s University Hospital in 1985, the focus was on patient care. But nowadays the Faculty of Medicine is one of the university’s strongest research faculties.

Eingangsbereich UK Aachen
Main Entrance of University Hospital RWTH Aachen ©UK Aachen

Contributors

Natalia Chechko

A04: Implicit chemosensory threat signals as stimulators of amygdala hyperresponsiveness in AMD Principal investigator Public relations team member Equal opportunity committee member RWTH Aachen

Natalia Chechko’s research group investigates neuroscientific and bioscientific aspects of various psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and autism spectrum disorder. Cerebral dysfunctions in women of reproductive age who suffer from affective disorders, e.g. postpartum depression, psychosomatic illnesses or chronic pain disorders, are a particular focus. The aim is to record emotional and cognitive dysfunctions multimodally in order to enable early detection and predict the response to therapy in affected women. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to analyse cerebral dysfunctions during visual, olfactory and nociceptive stimulation. Psychological test procedures and laboratory measurement techniques, such as blood serum analyses and hair sample analyses, are also used. Other influencing factors such as genetic disposition are also taken into account.

Thomas Frodl

A08: The metabolic lung-brain axis in aggressive behavior in patients with AMD Q01: Recruitment and biotyping transdiagnostic risk mechanisms for aggressive behaviors in mental disorders across the life span Principal investigator Citizen Advisory Boad RWTH Aachen

Thomas Frodl is a prominent neuroscientist and psychiatrist affiliated with RWTH Aachen University in Germany. His research focuses on the neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and anxiety. Frodl employs advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain structure and function, aiming to understand the mechanisms that contribute to these conditions. His work is instrumental in developing more effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, bridging the gap between clinical practice and neuroscience research.

Ute Habel

A02: Context effects on threat processing in dependence of testosterone levels A04: Implicit chemosensory threat signals as stimulators of amygdala hyperresponsiveness in AMD Q01: Recruitment and biotyping transdiagnostic risk mechanisms for aggressive behaviors in mental disorders across the life span Q04: Central coordination Principal investigator Spokesperson Steering committee member Management board member Citizen Advisory Boad RWTH Aachen Research Center Jülich (FZJ)

Professor Ute Habel is a distinguished academic at RWTH Aachen University, renowned for her expertise in neuropsychology. Her research delves into the neural mechanisms of emotions, cognition, and psychiatric disorders, utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI. With a prolific output of publications, she significantly contributes to the understanding of brain function in both health and disease. As a dedicated educator, she mentors students and fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, making substantial impacts on both academic research and clinical practices in neuropsychology and psychiatry.

Kerstin Konrad

A06: Decoding dynamic reciprocal neural mechanism underlying reactive aggression: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS hyperscanning Q01: Recruitment and biotyping transdiagnostic risk mechanisms for aggressive behaviors in mental disorders across the life span Principal investigator Citizen Advisory Boad RWTH Aachen Research Center Jülich (FZJ)

Kerstin Konrad is affiliated with the RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich, where she specializes in developmental psychology and neuroscience. Her research primarily focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying attention and executive functions in children and adolescents. Through her work, Konrad aims to better understand developmental disorders such as ADHD, contributing valuable insights to the field of child psychology and cognitive development.

Klaus Mathiak

B03: A process-based brain-computer interface to modulate aggressive behavior – a real-time fMRI neurofeedback study C02: Aggressive decisions in social conflicts: Neuro-cognitive models for healthy individuals and psychiatric patients with high scores of aggression Q02: Data management for computational modelling Principal investigator Research data committee member Equal opportunity committee member RWTH Aachen

Klaus Mathiak is a professor at RWTH Aachen University, specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy. His research integrates neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and clinical studies to understand the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition, aggression, and media influence on behavior. Mathiak’s work aims to enhance therapeutic interventions for psychiatric disorders by elucidating the brain’s role in social and emotional processing.

Carmen Weidler

B01: Neurobehavioral effects of repetitive prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on pathological aggression Principal investigator RWTH Aachen

Carmen Weidler is a neuroscientist whose research primarily focuses on the neural underpinnings of aggressive and impulsive behavior. Her work explores the effects of brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), on behavioral and neural correlates of aggression and impulsivity in violent criminal offenders, patients with mental disorders, and healthy individuals. The primary aim of her research is to achieve a better understanding of the individual and methodological factors that enhance the efficacy of tDCS.

Projects

A01: The neural code of stimulus-triggered territorial aggression

Marc Spehr Lena Terlau RWTH Aachen Negative valence system Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
A unique experimental model will be used to study the neurobiological basis of aggressive animal behavior and translate novel findings about its cellular and circuit underpinnings into human phenotypes of pathological aggression. Specifically, the post-weaning social isolation model of early-life adverse experience allows experimental access to dissect the ‘switch’ from functional adaptive aggression to excessive pathological aggressive behavior. In male mice, conspecific chemostimuli trigger innate aggressive behavior. The relevant aggression-promoting circuits along the(sensory) input to (aggressive) output axis comprise the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), a hub for processing of social chemosignals, and the medial amygdala (MeA), a crucial control centre for regulation of aggressive behavior. Therefore, this project addresses the principles that govern aggression-promoting information transfer along the AOB-to-MeA signaling pathway.

A02: Context effects on threat processing in dependence of testosterone levels

Katja Bertsch Sabine Herpertz Ute Habel Isabel Neumann Nick Worm Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg Heidelberg University RWTH Aachen Negative valence system Biological Psychiatry Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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.

A04: Implicit chemosensory threat signals as stimulators of amygdala hyperresponsiveness in AMD

Ute Habel Natalia Chechko RWTH Aachen Negative valence system Biological Psychiatry Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
We make use of threat-related chemosensory stimuli, namely body odor, acquired during aggressive behavior (boxing) and unconsciously perceived, to investigate heightened amygdala responses to threat stimuli in aggressive patients. Body odors have the major advantage of being directly projected into the amygdala, circumventing cortical preprocessing, thereby enabling the differentiation of mechanisms between bottom-up altered limbic processing and top-down modulated altered cognitive evaluation. We investigate the potential of such body odors to bias responses to ambiguous visual social cues towards threat and their effects during peripersonal space (PPS) violation where they may be especially relevant.

A06: Decoding dynamic reciprocal neural mechanism underlying reactive aggression: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS hyperscanning

Kerstin Konrad Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Vanessa Reindl RWTH Aachen Central Institute of Mental Health Negative valence system Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
The project employs fMRI and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning techniques to explore how brain-to-brain synchrony and dynamic processes within peer dyads facilitate or inhibit aggressive behavior under diverse levels of provocation in adolescent patients and controls. In two fully interactive tasks, we will probe aggressive behavior towards a task partner, and quantify the building of interpersonal trust/distrust applying a social interaction and economic exchange paradigm. These paradigms will be employed within dyads in fMRI hyperscanning settings and extended by group-based fNIRS methods in triads to study effects of peers, social exclusion, and coalitions on aggressive behavior in semi-naturalistic interactions. Between-brain neural synchrony will be computed and related to everyday social experiences and individual predispositions to identify markers for the prediction of aggressive behavior.

A08: The metabolic lung-brain axis in aggressive behavior in patients with AMD

Thomas Frodl David Slattery Gabriele Ende RWTH Aachen Goethe University Frankfurt Central Institute of Mental Health Negative valence system Biological Psychiatry Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Beta-hydroxy-butyrate (BHB), a ketone body, is negatively associated with aggressive behavior. BHB is a metabolite and an active signaling substrate involved in epigenetic regulation of e.g., neurotrophic factor genes in the brain. Of the three main ketone bodies, acetone, acetoacetate and BHB, acetone is a very volatile compound, mainly eliminated through respiration, thus can be measured non-invasively in breath. A reduction of acetone in breath has been found to highly correlate with BHB in blood and be associated with symptom severity in schizophrenia (Jiang et al. 2022). Using MR spectroscopy, A08 aims to (1) identify whether acetone and other volatile organic compounds in breath are associated with aggression and acute threat processing in mental disorders and (2) to examine whether these breath markers are associated with direct metabolic brain correlates (like BHB, glutamate) and with the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in plasma. In a translational approach, (3) we will test if supplementation of BHB reduces aggressive behavior in mice.

B01: Neurobehavioral effects of repetitive prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on pathological aggression

Carmen Weidler Andreas Reif RWTH Aachen Goethe University Frankfurt Cognitive system Biological Psychiatry Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
TDCS will be used as an interventional tool to decrease aggression. Using a simultaneous tDCS – fMRI approach, the project aims to enhance cognitive control by repeated prefrontal brain stimulation, investigating its effect on aggression. In addition to gauging tDCS responsivity, identifying the role of individual factors such as genetic profiles in aggression will be a particular focus of this project. By examining brain activity at multiple time points (e.g., before, during multiple stimulation sessions and after tDCS), it will add to the understanding of mechanisms underlying neural tDCS effects and help to identify individual factors that predict responsiveness to the stimulation. To determine the therapeutic potential, we will include psychiatric patients with substance use problems, a group of criminal, violent offenders, and healthy matched controls.

B03: A process-based brain-computer interface to modulate aggressive behavior – a real-time fMRI neurofeedback study

Klaus Mathiak Christian Paret Jana Zweerings RWTH Aachen Central Institute of Mental Health Cognitive system Biological Psychiatry
Probe the self-regulation of CS networks in adults and adolescents diagnosed with mental disorders related to frequent stress-associated affective outbursts and aggressive symptoms in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and BPD. The patients will subsequently be trained to regulate the frontal control network to varying acute threat in a double-blind, randomized, controlled design. An immersive, virtual brain- computer-interface (BCI) will allow for a culture- and age-sensitive, personalized training approach. The aim of the present investigation is to assess feasibility of the approach according to four clinical markers: Reduction of perceived threat and aggressive behavior in daily life, improved control in the face of unfair provocation, and neurofeedback-specific modulation of the neural networks.

B04: Investigating psychological and neural correlates of intimate partner violence

Lisa Wagels Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Katja Bertsch Julia Koch Julia Schräder Linda Wilkin-Krug RWTH Aachen Central Institute of Mental Health Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg Cognitive system Biological Psychiatry Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Focus on the neural correlates of characterizing cognitive control deficits during conflict situations. The project will investigate patients with varying levels of cognitive control along with their close partners (sibling or intimate partner) to identify the dynamics of self-regulation and co-regulation in provoked conflict situations in patients with control deficits. To identify the precursors and dynamics of conflict escalation, the project will apply measures of behavioral reactions, skin conductance, simulated or real conflict, fMRI and fMRI-hyperscanning techniques and physiological measures. Neuroimaging data will also be combined with information on stress, control and conflicts in real-life via EMA.

C02: Aggressive decisions in social conflicts: Neuro-cognitive models for healthy individuals and psychiatric patients with high scores of aggression

Christoph Korn Klaus Mathiak RWTH Aachen Heidelberg University Interaction of negative valence system and cognitive system Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Biological Psychiatry
Develop virtual scenarios to assess decision strategies in cartoon-like and naturalistic contexts. The core question is how healthy individuals and patients make (mal-)adaptive aggressive decisions in social conflicts given their threat sensitivity, cognitive functions, and learning experience. We plan to present mathematically well-defined aggressive decision scenarios to healthy participants as well as patients across diagnostic categories with high scores of aggressive behavior, threat sensitivity, and inference of hostile intent in others. Computational models that accurately explain behavioral choices and neural responses (tested using fMRI and pupillometry) will be developed to identify the aggressive decision strategies humans employ in approach-avoidance conflicts of increasing complexity and ecological realism. The purpose will be to determine if patients use overly aggressive strategies that are not warranted by the necessary defense of self-threats and underlying neural circuits.

Q02: Data management for computational modelling

Michael Hanke Gabriele Ende Richard Nkrumah Christine Ecker Klaus Mathiak Wiebke Hennig Arezoo Taebi Service project Research Center Jülich (FZJ) Central Institute of Mental Health Goethe University Frankfurt RWTH Aachen
Data management and training platform. A decentralized data management infrastructure will help focus on developmental and therapeutic longitudinal data, training all participating researchers in the necessary skills for future use. This strategy will lay the foundations for further data-driven computational modelling projects in the next funding period.

This is a distributed project, with representatives at all main TRR379 sites.