Head of the working group: Dr. Sebastian Schindler

The human brain prioritizes emotional stimuli. However, this prioritized processing strongly varies with the context in which the emotional stimuli are presented. The working group investigates the role of such contextual factors (including distraction, evaluation mode, expectations, and social comparisons) on neural mechanisms of processing emotional stimuli (e.g., social feedback, facial expressions, and stimuli with acquired emotional relevance due to different forms of learning). We try to understand the modulation of involved brain regions and temporal processing stages of the processing of different kinds of emotional, especially socioemotional stimuli. We aim to improve the models on brain mechanisms underlying specific effects of emotional stimuli on stimulus recognition, learning and memory, or attentional functions. Our work is based on newly developed experimental designs combined with electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI).

1. How are social feedback processing and resulting updating processes modulated by sender-, receiver-, and feedback characteristics?
2. How does the chronometry of neural responses to emotional stimuli behave depending on processing resources, attentional focus and stimulus features?
3. What are stimulus-modality-specific and -unspecific neural responses to emotional stimuli?
4. How are specific personality traits or the diagnosis of specific mental disorders associated with different stages of processing emotional stimuli?

• Schindler, S., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T. (2023). Beyond facial expressions: a systematic review on effects of emotional relevance of faces on the N170. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105399
• Vormbrock, R., Bruchmann, M., Menne, L., Straube, T., & Schindler, S. (2023). Testing stimulus exposure time as the critical factor of increased EPN and LPP amplitudes for fearful faces during perceptual distraction tasks. Cortex. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.011
• Schindler, S.*, Bruchmann, M.*, Krasowski, C., Moeck, R., & Straube, T. (2021). Charged with a crime: The neuronal signature of processing negatively evaluated faces under different attentional conditions. Psychological Science. doi.org/10.1177/0956797621996667
• Schindler, S., Höhner, A., Moeck, R., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T. (2021). Let's talk about each other: Neural responses to dissenting personality evaluations based on real dyadic interactions. Psychological Science. doi.org/10.1177/0956797621995197

* shared first authorships

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