Central themes of our research are emotion control, stress-resilience and the role of automatic action tendencies in affective decision-making.
Typical questions we address are:
- How does our brain control our automatic emotional action tendencies?
- Why are some people resilient to stress while others develop stress-related disorders?
- How can we improve emotion control and anxious and aggressive individuals?
To study these themes, we apply multiple neuroscience techniques (fMRI, MEG, EEG) in combination with computational modeling in healthy samples as well as patients with affective disorders (anxiety and aggression) and developmental samples. Additionally, we use neuromodulation (transcranial ultrasound stimulation -TUS, and transcranial alternaling stimulation -tACS) as well behavioural training to improve emotion control in health and psychopathology.
Investigating emotion control at a neural level can provide important clues as to the fundamental mechanisms by which emotion control operates. However, besides providing novel theoretic insights, the knowledge derived from our studies also serves social aims. For instance, our research is currently used to develop new intervention studies. We use testosterone administration to boost exposure therapies in social phobia at mental health organization Pro Persona; We use VR-based Biofeedback training to improve emoiton control in police officers; and we inform policy debates on aggression management by the Ministry of Safety and Justice. This research group is part of Theme 2: Perception, Action and Decision-making.