Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
Dokumenttyp
- Dissertation (64) (entfernen)
Sprache
- Englisch (64) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Stress (20)
- Hydrocortison (13)
- cortisol (9)
- Cortisol (8)
- stress (7)
- Physiologische Psychologie (6)
- Aufmerksamkeit (4)
- Elektroencephalographie (4)
- Funktionelle NMR-Tomographie (4)
- Kognition (4)
- Neuroendokrines System (4)
- Stressreaktion (4)
- fMRI (4)
- Affekt (3)
- Aggression (3)
- Depression (3)
- Gedächtnis (3)
- Lernen (3)
- Brustkrebs (2)
- Distractor-Response Binding (2)
- Dopamin (2)
- Einstellung (2)
- Elektroencephalogramm (2)
- Emotion (2)
- Ereigniskorreliertes Potenzial (2)
- Essstörung (2)
- Evaluative Konditionierung (2)
- Fibromyalgie (2)
- Gehirn (2)
- Genexpression (2)
- Glucocorticosteroide (2)
- Glucocorticosteroidrezeptor (2)
- HPA axis (2)
- Hypothalamus-Hypophysen-Nebennierenrinden-Achse (2)
- Insulin (2)
- Interozeption (2)
- Memory (2)
- Partnerwahl (2)
- Persönlichkeitsstörung (2)
- Psychobiologie (2)
- Psychotherapie (2)
- Schizophrenie (2)
- Schmerz (2)
- Schreckreaktion (2)
- Selbstbild (2)
- Stressor (2)
- Vegetatives Nervensystem (2)
- academic self-concept (2)
- affective startle modulation (2)
- alternative Transkriptionsvarianten (2)
- alternative transcription variant (2)
- attitudes (2)
- behavioral genetics (2)
- dopamine (2)
- evaluative conditioning (2)
- fibromyalgia (2)
- glucocorticoid receptor (2)
- mating preferences (2)
- pain (2)
- selective attention (2)
- (ADHD (1)
- 2D DIGE (1)
- 5' UTR (1)
- ACC (1)
- ANS (1)
- Acetylcholin (1)
- Action control (1)
- Adaptives System (1)
- Affect (1)
- Affektive Schreckreiz-Modulation (1)
- Affektive Startle Modulation (1)
- Annäherungs-Vermeidungs-Motivation (1)
- Anthropometrie (1)
- Approach-avoidance motivation (1)
- Arbeitsgedächtnis (1)
- Assoziatives Lernen (1)
- Aufmerksamkeits-Defizit-Syndrom (1)
- Autismus (1)
- Baroreflex (1)
- Bauchfett (1)
- Begabtenförderung (1)
- Behalten (1)
- Beurteilungsfehler (1)
- Binge-eating Disorder (1)
- Bipolar Disorder (1)
- Bipolare Störung (1)
- Birth weight (1)
- Blinkreflex (1)
- Blinzelreflex (1)
- Borderline Personality Disorder (1)
- Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung (1)
- Brain (1)
- Bulimie (1)
- Burnout (1)
- Burnout-Syndrom (1)
- C15orf53 (1)
- CASL (1)
- CBG (1)
- CBT (1)
- COMT Val158Met (1)
- Care (1)
- Catecholmethyltransferase <Catechol-0-Methyltransferase> (1)
- Central Nervous System (1)
- Chromosom 15 (1)
- Chromosom 22 (1)
- Cingulum (1)
- Cingulum Cerebri (1)
- Cognition (1)
- Cold Pressor Test (1)
- Conceptual Endophenotypes (1)
- Conduct disorder (1)
- Construal Level Theorie (1)
- Construal Level Theory (1)
- Consumer need for uniqueness (1)
- Corticosteroid-bindendes Globulin (1)
- Corticosteroidrezeptor (1)
- Cortisol-Aufwach-Reaktion (1)
- Cytokine (1)
- Das circadiane System (1)
- Diagnostische Urteilskompetenz (1)
- Differentielle Genexpression (1)
- Distraktor-Reaktionsbindung (1)
- Distraktor-Verarbeitung (1)
- Distraktorverarbeitung (1)
- EEG (1)
- ERP (1)
- Ecological Momentary Assessment (1)
- Einstellungsforschung (1)
- Elektroenzephalogramm (1)
- Elektrokardiogramm (1)
- Emotionsregulation (1)
- Entscheidung (1)
- Entwicklung (1)
- Enzyme (1)
- Epigenetik (1)
- Ereigniskorreliertes Potential (1)
- Essverhalten (1)
- Evaluation (1)
- Event file (1)
- Event-File (1)
- Exekuitive Funktion (1)
- Exekutive Funktionen (1)
- Experiment (1)
- Extraversion (1)
- F0 (1)
- FKBP51 (1)
- Fahrassistenzsystem (1)
- Fear (1)
- Feinkartierung (1)
- Fetus (1)
- Fissurisation (1)
- Flexibilität (1)
- Fluoreszenzmikroskopie (1)
- Food pictures (1)
- Frequenzbandkopplungen (1)
- Funktionelle Kernspintomographie (1)
- Furcht (1)
- Fähigkeitsselbstkonzepte (1)
- GR (1)
- Gedächtnisrepräsentation (1)
- Gefühl (1)
- Gegenstimulation (1)
- Genanalyse (1)
- Genetik (1)
- Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR) (1)
- Glucocorticoidrezeptor (1)
- Glucocorticoids (1)
- Glukokortikoidrezeptor (1)
- Grundfrequenz (1)
- Grundschullehrer (1)
- Gyrifikation (1)
- HPA (1)
- HPA-Achse (1)
- Habituation (1)
- Handlungsregulation (1)
- Hemisphärendominanz (1)
- Hippocampus (1)
- Hippocampus Aktivierung (1)
- Hippocampus Atrophie (1)
- Hippocampus Volumen (1)
- Hirnforschung (1)
- Hirnfunktion (1)
- Human (1)
- Humangenetik (1)
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (1)
- Immunsystem (1)
- Implizites Lernen (1)
- Implizites Sequenzlernen (1)
- Impulsivität (1)
- Individualisierte Medizin (1)
- Informationsverarbeitung (1)
- Infusion (1)
- Inhibition (1)
- Inhibitorische Kontrolle (1)
- Interoception (1)
- Intranasal insulin (1)
- Intrusionen (1)
- Kaltwasserstresstest (1)
- Kaltwasssertest (1)
- Kernspintomographie (1)
- Klassiche Lidschlagkonditionierung (1)
- Klassische Konditionierung (1)
- Knowledge (1)
- Koerperwahrnehmung (1)
- Kognitive Entwicklung (1)
- Kognitive Psychologie (1)
- Kognitive Verhaltenstherapie (1)
- Konditionierung (1)
- Kontrollierte Therapiestudie (1)
- Konzeptuelle Endophänotypen (1)
- Kopplungs- und Mutationsanalysen (1)
- Kortex (1)
- Learning (1)
- Lebensqualität (1)
- Lymphozyt (1)
- MALDI-TOF MS (1)
- MLC1 (1)
- MR (1)
- Makrophage (1)
- Mass Customization (1)
- Mensch (1)
- Menstruationszyklus (1)
- Meta-Analyse (1)
- Meta-Analysis (1)
- Metabolism (1)
- Methylierung und SNPs (1)
- Methylphenidat (1)
- Milde Depression (1)
- Mineralokortikoidrezeptor (1)
- Modulation (1)
- Monozyt (1)
- Mortality Salience (1)
- Mortalitätssalienz (1)
- Mutation (1)
- NMR-Spektroskopie (1)
- Neuropattern (1)
- Nuklearrezeptoren (1)
- Orbicularis-oculi-Reflex (1)
- P-Glykoprotein (1)
- PERIOD Gene (1)
- PERIOD gene (1)
- PERIOD genes (1)
- Perfusion (1)
- Personalized Medicine (1)
- Phasen-Amplituden-Kopplung (1)
- Plazenta (1)
- Polymorphismus (1)
- Positive affect (1)
- Positiver Affekt (1)
- Pressorezeptor (1)
- Promotorregion (1)
- Proteomanalyse (1)
- Provokation (1)
- Präpulsinhibierung (1)
- Psychiatric genetics (1)
- Psychische Störung (1)
- Psychologiestudierende (1)
- Psychologiestudium (1)
- Psychologische Diagnostik (1)
- Psychologische Distanz (1)
- Psychophysiology (1)
- Psychotherapeutische Versorgung (1)
- Pulsatilität (1)
- Pädagogische Diagnostik (1)
- RCT (1)
- Reiz-Reaktions Bindung (1)
- Reizverarbeitung (1)
- Rückmeldung (1)
- SNP (1)
- Sakkade (1)
- Schizophrenia (1)
- Schreckreflex (1)
- Schullaufbahnempfehlung (1)
- Schwangersch (1)
- Schwangerschaft (1)
- Sekundärkrankheit (1)
- Selbstkonzept (1)
- Selbstregulation (1)
- Selbstwert (1)
- Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung (1)
- Selective attention (1)
- Selektion (1)
- Self-Regulation (1)
- Smoking) (1)
- Sozialpsychologie (1)
- Spatial learning (1)
- Sprachverarbeitung (1)
- Startle modulation (1)
- Startle reflex (1)
- Steroidhormonrezeptor (1)
- Stillen (1)
- Stimme (1)
- Stimulus-Response binding (1)
- Stimulus-response learning (1)
- Struktur (1)
- Subarachnoidalblutung (1)
- Sympathikus (1)
- Testosteron (1)
- Thalamus (1)
- Therapieerfolg (1)
- Transkript (1)
- Transkription <Genetik> (1)
- Universal Eating Monitor (1)
- Unsicherheit (1)
- Unterkörper Unterdruck (1)
- Vagus (1)
- Verbraucherverhalten (1)
- Verhaltensgenetik (1)
- Verhaltensstörung (1)
- Visceral perception (1)
- Viszerale Wahrnehmung (1)
- Vorsorge (1)
- Wirkung (1)
- Wissen (1)
- Work Stress (1)
- Zentralnervensystem (1)
- Zytokin (1)
- acetylcholine (1)
- action control (1)
- adaptive hypermedia (1)
- affect (1)
- akademisches Selbstkonzept (1)
- anterior cingulate (1)
- arterial spin labeling (1)
- associative learning (1)
- attitude formation (1)
- automatische Handlungsplanung (1)
- automatische Reizverarbeitung (1)
- baroreceptor (1)
- biases in judgement (1)
- blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast (1)
- brain (1)
- bulimia (1)
- central adiposity (1)
- cerebral blood flow (1)
- chronic stress (1)
- chronischer Stress (1)
- circadian clock genes (1)
- circadian clock system (1)
- cognitive control (1)
- cold pressor (1)
- cortex (1)
- corticosteroid receptor (1)
- cortisol response to awakening (1)
- counter-stimulation (1)
- cross-frequency coupling (1)
- customer loyalty (1)
- cytokine (1)
- cytokines (1)
- dACC (1)
- decision making (1)
- development (1)
- die circadiane Uhr-Gene (1)
- distractor processing (1)
- driver assistance system (1)
- dual task interference (1)
- ecological momentary assessment (1)
- educational assessment (1)
- effectiveness (1)
- efficacy (1)
- electrocardiogram (1)
- electroencephalogram (1)
- emotion regulation (1)
- empirical evaluation (1)
- epigenetic programming (1)
- evaluation framework (1)
- event file (1)
- executive functions (1)
- exekutive Funktionen (1)
- eyeblink conditioning (1)
- fMRT (1)
- familial risk (1)
- fine mapping (1)
- fissurization (1)
- functional MRI (1)
- functional specialisation of hemispheres (1)
- funktionelle NMR-Tomographie (1)
- gene expression (1)
- genetics (1)
- glucocorticoids (1)
- hippocampal atrophy (1)
- hippocampal volume assessment (1)
- hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (1)
- hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal-axis (1)
- hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (1)
- immune system (1)
- immunity (1)
- implicit learning (1)
- impulsivity (1)
- information processing (1)
- inhibitory control (1)
- interoception (1)
- intrusions (1)
- judgement accuracy (1)
- kognitive Kontrolle (1)
- language processing (1)
- linkage and mutational analysis (1)
- lower body negative pressure (1)
- lymphocytes (1)
- macrophages (1)
- maternal care (1)
- mean vector length (1)
- membrane glucocorticoid receptor (1)
- membraner Glucocorticoidrezeptor (1)
- memory (1)
- memory representation (1)
- menstrual cycle (1)
- methylation and SNPs (1)
- methylphenidate (1)
- midcingulate cortex (1)
- mineralocorticoid receptor (1)
- mismatch negativity (1)
- modulation (1)
- modulation index (1)
- monocytes (1)
- natural killer cells (1)
- natürliche Killerzellen (1)
- neuroendocrine system (1)
- neuroimaging (1)
- nicht-genomische Effekte (1)
- non-genomic effects (1)
- norepinephrine (1)
- nuclear receptor (1)
- nucleus accumbens (1)
- p-glycoprotein (1)
- patient-focused psychotherapy research (1)
- patienten-orientierte Psychotherapieforschung (1)
- perception (1)
- periodic catatonia (1)
- periodische Katatonie (1)
- phase-amplitude coupling (1)
- placenta (1)
- post-transcriptional regulation (1)
- post-transkriptionelle Regulierung (1)
- postnatal stress factors (1)
- postnatale Stressfaktoren (1)
- prenatal adversity (1)
- prenatal programming (1)
- prenatal stress (1)
- prenatal stress factors (1)
- prenatal tobacco exposure (1)
- prepulse inhibition (1)
- promoter region (1)
- proteomics (1)
- provocation (1)
- pränatale Programmierung (1)
- pränatale Risikofaktoren (1)
- pränatale Stressfaktoren (1)
- pränatale Tabakexposition (1)
- pränataler Stress (1)
- psychological distance (1)
- psychology students (1)
- pulsatility (1)
- quantitative sensory testing (1)
- routine care (1)
- saccade (1)
- selection (1)
- selektive Aufmerksamkeit (1)
- self-concept (1)
- self-efficacy (1)
- self-esteem (1)
- simulation study (1)
- social self-concept (1)
- somatische Komorbiditäten (1)
- soziale Selbstkonzepte (1)
- stress hyporesponsive period (1)
- stress reaction (1)
- structure (1)
- subarachnoid haemorrhage (1)
- substance abuse (1)
- teacher judgement (1)
- uncertainty (1)
- uniqueness seeking (1)
- user modeling (1)
- vagus (1)
- visceral awareness (1)
- visual change detection (1)
- visuelle Wahrnehmung (1)
- visueller Mismatch (1)
- viszerale Empfindung (1)
- voice (1)
- zerebraler Blutfluss (1)
- Ätiologie (1)
Institut
- Psychologie (64) (entfernen)
The efficacy and effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions have been proven time and again. We therefore know that, in general, evidence-based treatments work for the average patient. However, it has also repeatedly been shown that some patients do not profit from or even deteriorate during treatment. Patient-focused psychotherapy research takes these differences between patients into account by focusing on the individual patient. The aim of this research approach is to analyze individual treatment courses in order to evaluate when and under which circumstances a generally effective treatment works for an individual patient. The goal is to identify evidence based clinical decision rules for the adaptation of treatment to prevent treatment failure. Patient-focused research has illustrated how different intake indicators and early change patterns predict the individual course of treatment, but they leave a lot of variance unexplained. The thesis at hand analyzed whether Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) strategies could be integrated into patient-focused psychotherapy research in order to improve treatment response prediction models. EMA is an electronically supported diary approach, in which multiple real-time assessments are conducted in participants" everyday lives. We applied EMA over a two-week period before treatment onset in a mixed sample of patients seeking outpatient treatment. The four daily measurements in the patients" everyday environment focused on assessing momentary affect and levels of rumination, perceived self-efficacy, social support and positive or negative life events since the previous assessment. The aim of this thesis project was threefold: First, to test the feasibility of EMA in a routine care outpatient setting. Second, to analyze the interrelation of different psychological processes within patients" everyday lives. Third and last, to test whether individual indicators of psychological processes during everyday life, which were assessed before treatment onset, could be used to improve prediction models of early treatment response. Results from Study I indicate good feasibility of EMA application during the waiting period for outpatient treatment. High average compliance rates over the entire assessment period and low average burdens perceived by the patients support good applicability. Technical challenges and the results of in-depth missing analyses are reported to guide future EMA applications in outpatient settings. Results from Study II shed further light on the rumination-affect link. We replicated results from earlier studies, which identified a negative association between state rumination and affect on a within-person level and additionally showed a) that this finding holds for the majority but not every individual in a diverse patient sample with mixed Axis-I disorders, b) that rumination is linked to negative but also to positive affect and c) that dispositional rumination significantly affects the state rumination-affect association. The results provide exploratory evidence that rumination might be considered a transdiagnostic mechanism of psychological functioning and well-being. Results from Study III finally suggest that the integration of indicators derived from EMA applications before treatment onset can improve prediction models of early treatment response. Positive-negative affect ratios as well as fluctuations in negative affect measured during patients" daily lives allow the prediction of early treatment response. Our results indicate that the combination of commonly applied intake predictors and EMA indicators of individual patients" daily experiences can improve treatment response predictions models. We therefore conclude that EMA can successfully be integrated into patient-focused research approaches in routine care settings to ameliorate or optimize individual care.
The last decades of stress research have yielded substantial advancements highlighting the importance of the phenomenon for basic psychological functions as well as physical health and well-being. Progress in stress research heavily relies on the availability of suitable and well validated laboratory stressors. Appropriate laboratory stressors need to be able to reliably provoke a response in the relevant parameters and be applicable in different research settings or experimental designs. This thesis focuses on the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) as a stress induction technique. Three published experiments are presented that show how the advantages of the CPT can be used to test stress effects on memory processes and how some of its disadvantages can be met by a simple modification that retains its feasibility and validity. The first experiment applies the CPT in a substantial sample to investigate the consolidation effects of post-learning sympathetic arousal. Stressed participants with high increases in heart rate during the CPT showed enhanced memory performance one day after learning compared to both the warm water control group and low heart rate responders. This finding suggests that beta-adrenergic activation elicited shortly after learning enhances memory consolidation and that the CPT induced heart rate response is a predictor for this effect. Moreover, the CPT proved to be an appropriate stressor to test hypothesis about endogenous adrenergic effects on memory processes. The second experiment addresses known practical limitations of the standard dominant hand CPT protocol. A bilateral feet CPT modification is presented, the elicited neuroendocrine stress response assessed and validated against the standard CPT in a within-subjects design. The bilateral feet CPT elicited a substantial neuroendocrine stress response. Moreover, with the exception of blood pressure responses, all stress parameters were enhanced compared to the standard CPT. This shows that the bilateral feet CPT is a valid alternative to the standard CPT. The third experiment further validates the bilateral feet CPT and its corresponding control procedure by employing it in a typical application scenario. Specifically, the bilateral feet CPT was used to modulate retrieval of event files in a distractor-response binding paradigm that required lateralized bimanual responses. Again, the bilateral feet CPT induced significant increases in heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol, no such increases could be observed in the warm water control condition. Moreover, stressed participants showed diminished retrieval compared to controls. These results provide further evidence for the feasibility and validity of the bilateral feet CPT and its warm water control procedure. Together the experiments presented here highlight the usefulness of the CPT as a tool in psychophysiological stress research. It is especially well suited to test hypothesis concerning stress effects on memory processes and its applicability can be further increased by the bilateral feet modification.
Death is perceived as a severe threat to the self. Although it is certain that everyone has to die, people usually don't think about the finiteness of their life. Everything reminding of death is ignored, rationalized and death-related thoughts and fears are pushed out of mind (TMT; Pyszczynski et al., 1999). However, people differ in their ability to regulate negative affect and to access their self-system (Kuhl, 2001). As death is assumed to arouse existential fears, the ability to regulate such fears is particularly important, higher self-access could be relevant in defending central personal values. This thesis aimed at showing existential fears under mortality salience and effects of self-regulation of affect under mortality salience. In two studies (Chapter 2) implicit negative affect under mortality salience was demonstrated. An additional study (Chapter 3) shows the effects of self-regulation on implicit negative affect, whereas four studies in Chapter 4 displayed differences in self-access under mortality salience depending on people- ability of self-regulating negative affect.
The Role of Dopamine and Acetylcholine as Modulators of Selective Attention and Response Speed
(2015)
The principles of top-down and bottom-up processing are essential to cognitive psychology. At their broadest, most general definition, they denote that processing can be driven either by the salience of the stimulus input or by individual goals and strategies. Selective top-down attention, specifically, consists in the deliberate prioritizing of stimuli that are deemed goal-relevant, while selective bottom-up attention relies on the automatic allocation of attention to salient stimuli (Connor, Egeth, & Yantis, 2004; Schneider, Schote, Meyer, & Frings, 2014). Variations within neurotransmitter systems can modulate cognitive performance in a domain-specific fashion (Greenwood, Fossella, & Parasuraman, 2005). Noudoost and Moore (2011a) proposed that the influence of the dopaminergic neurotransmitter system on selective top-down attention might be greater than the influence of this system on selective bottom-up attention; likewise, they assumed that the cholinergic neurotransmitter system might be more important for selective bottom-up than top-down attention. To test this hypothesis, naturally occurring variations within the two neurotransmitter systems were assessed. Five polymorphisms were selected; two of the dopaminergic system (the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and the DAT1 polymorphism) and three of the cholinergic system (the CHRNA4 rs1044396 polymorphism, the CHRNA5 rs3841324 polymorphism, and the CHRNA5 rs16969968 polymorphism). It was tested whether these polymorphisms modulated the performance in tasks of selective top-down attention (a Stroop task and a Negative priming task) and in a task of selective bottom-up attention (a Posner-Cuing task). Indeed, the dopaminergic polymorphisms influenced selective top-down attention, but exerted no effects on bottom-up attention. This aligned with the hypothesis proposed by Noudoost and Moore (2011a). In contrast, the cholinergic polymorphisms were not found to modulate selective bottom-up attention. The three cholinergic polymorphisms, however, affected the general response speed in the Stroop task, Negative priming task, and Posner-Cuing task (irrespective of attentional processing). In sum, the findings of this study provide strong indications that the dopaminergic system modulates selective top-down attention, while the cholinergic system is highly relevant for the general speed of information processing.
The distractor-response binding effect (Frings & Rothermund, 2011; Frings, Rothermund, & Wentura, 2007; Rothermund, Wentura, & De Houwer, 2005) is based on the idea that irrelevant information will be integrated with the response to the relevant stimuli in an episodic memory trace. The immediate re-encounter of any aspect of this saved episode " be it relevant or irrelevant " can lead to retrieval of the whole episode. As a consequence, the previously executed and now retrieved response may influencing the response to the current relevant stimulus. That is, the current response may either be facilitated or be impaired by the retrieved response, depending on whether it is compatible or incompatible to the currently demanded response. Previous research on this kind of episodic retrieval focused on the influence on action control. I examined if distractor response binding also plays a role in decision making in addition to action control. To this end I adapted the distractor-to-distractor priming paradigm (Frings et al., 2007) and conducted nine experiments in which participants had to decide as fast as possible which disease a fictional patient suffered from. To infer the correct diagnosis, two cues were presented; one did not give any hint for a disease (the irrelevant cue), whereas the other did (the relevant cue). Experiments 1a to 1c showed that the distractor-response binding effect is present in deterministic decision situations. Further, experiments 2a and 2b indicate that distractor-response binding also influences decisions under uncertainty. Finally, experiments 3a to 3d were conducted to test some constraints and underlying mechanisms of the distractor-response binding effect in decision making under uncertainty. In sum, these nine experiments provide strong evidence that distractor-response binding influences decision making.
Stress related disorders increase continuously. It is not yet clear if stress also promotes breast cancer. This dissertation provides an analyses of the current state of research and focuses on the significance of pre-/postnatal stress factors and chronic stress. The derived hypotheses are empirically examined on breast cancer patients. The clinical study investigates the links between those factors and prognosis and outcome.
Every day we are exposed to a large set of appetitive food cues, mostly of high caloric, high carbohydrate content. Environmental factors like food cue exposition can impact eating behavior, by triggering anticipatory endocrinal responses and reinforcing the reward value of food. Additionally, it has been shown that eating behavior is largely influence by neuroendocrine factors. Energy homeostasis is of great importance for survival in all animal species. It is challenged under the state of food deprivation which is considered to be a metabolic stressor. Interestingly, the systems regulating stress and food intake share neural circuits. Adrenal glucocorticoids, as cortisol, and the pancreatic hormone insulin have been shown to be crucial to maintain catabolic and anabolic balance. Cortisol and insulin can cross the blood-brain barrier and interact with receptors distributed throughout the brain, influencing appetite and eating behavior. At the same time, these hormones have an important impact on the stress response. The aim of the current work is to broaden the knowledge on reward related food cue processing. With that purpose, we studied how food cue processing is influenced by food deprivation in women (in different phases of the menstrual cycle) and men. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of the stress/metabolic hormones, insulin and cortisol, at neural sites important for energy metabolism and in the processing of visual food cues. The Chapter I of this thesis details the underlying mechanisms of the startle response and its application in the investigation of food cue processing. Moreover, it describes the effects of food deprivation and of the stress-metabolic hormones insulin and cortisol in reward related processing of food cues. It explains the rationale for the studies presented in Chapter II-IV and describes their main findings. A general discussion of the results and recommendations for future research is given. In the study described in Chapter II, startle methodology was used to study the impact of food deprivation in the processing of reward related food cues. Women in different phases of the menstrual cycle and men were studied, in order to address potential effects of sex and menstrual cycle. All participants were studied either satiated or food deprived. Food deprivation provoked enhanced acoustic startle (ASR) response during foreground presentation of visual food cues. Sex and menstrual cycle did not influence this effect. The startle pattern towards food cues during fasting can be explained by a frustrative nonreward effect (FNR), driven by the impossibility to consume the exposed food. In Chapter III, a study is described, which was carried out to explore the central effects of insulin and cortisol, using continuous arterial spin labeling to map cerebral blood flow patterns. Following standardized periods of fasting, male participants received either intranasal insulin, oral cortisol, both, or placebo. Intranasal insulin increased resting regional cerebral blood flow in the putamen and insular cortex, structures that are involved in the regulation of eating behavior. Neither cortisol nor interaction effects were found. These results demonstrate that insulin exerts an action in metabolic centers during resting state, which is not affected by glucocorticoids. The study described in Chapter IV uses a similar pharmacological manipulation as the one presented in Chapter III, while assessing processing of reward related food cues through the startle paradigm validated in Chapter II. A sample of men was studied during short-term food deprivation. Considering the importance of both cortisol and insulin in glucose metabolism, food pictures were divided by glycemic index. Cortisol administration enhanced ASR during foreground presentation of "high glycemic" food pictures. This result suggests that cortisol provokes an increase in reward value of high glycemic food cues, which is congruent with previous research on stress and food consumption. This thesis gives support to the FNR hypothesis towards food cues during states of deprivation. Furthermore, it highlights the potential effects of stress related hormones in metabolism-connected neuronal structures, and in the reward related mechanisms of food cue processing. In a society marked by increased food exposure and availability, alongside with increased stress, it is important to better understand the impact of food exposition and its interaction with relevant hormones. This thesis contributes to the knowledge in this field. More research in this direction is needed.
The influence of affect on vocal parameters has been well investigated in speech portrayed by actors, but little is known about affect expression in more natural or authentic speech behavior. This is partly due to the difficulty of generating speech samples that represent authentic expression of speaker affect. The present work investigates the influence of speaker affect on the vocal fundamental frequency (F0) in comparatively authentic speech samples. Three well-documented psychophysiological research methods were applied for the induction of affective states in German native speakers in order to obtain speech samples with authentic affect expression: the Cold Pressor Test (CPT), the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) and the presentation of slides from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS). The here reported results show that the influence of affect on F0 is differentially modulated by psychophysiological processes as well as socio-cultural influences. They also indicate that this approach may be useful for future research and further to gain a deeper understanding of authentic vocal affect expression. Moreover, F0 may constitute an additional non-invasive, easy to obtain measure for the established psychophysiological research methodology.
Stress has been considered one of the most relevant factors promoting aggressive behavior. Animal and human pharmacological studies revealed the stress hormones corticosterone in rodents and cortisol in humans to constitute a particularly important neuroendocrine determinate in facilitating aggression and beyond that, assumedly in its continuation and escalation. Moreover, cortisol-induced alterations of social information processing, as well as of cognitive control processes, have been hypothesized as possible influencing factors in the stress-aggression link. So far, the immediate impact of a preceding stressor and thereby stress-induced rise of cortisol on aggressive behavior as well as higher-order cognitive control processes and social information processing in this context have gone mostly unheeded. The present thesis aimed to extend the hitherto findings of stress and aggression in this regard. For this purpose two psychophysiological studies with healthy adults were carried out, both using the socially evaluated-cold pressor test as an acute stress induction. Additionally to behavioral data and subjective reports, event related potentials were measured and acute levels of salivary cortisol were collected on the basis of which stressed participants were divided into cortisol-responders and "nonresponders. Study 1 examined the impact of acute stress-induced cortisol increase on inhibitory control and its neural correlates. 41 male participants were randomly assigned to the stress procedure or to a non-stressful control condition. Beforehand and afterwards, participants performed a Go Nogo task with visual letters to measure response inhibition. The effect of acute stress-induced cortisol increase on covert and overt aggressive behavior and on the processing of provoking stimuli within the aggressive encounter was investigated in study 2. Moreover, this experiment examined the combined impact of stress and aggression on ensuing affective information processing. 71 male and female participants were either exposed to the stress or to the control condition. Following this, half of each group received high or low levels of provocation during the Taylor Aggression Paradigm. At the end of the experiment, a passive viewing paradigm with affective pictures depicting positive, negative, or aggressive scenes with either humans or objects was realized. The results revealed that men were not affected by a stress-induced rise in cortisol on a behavioral level, showing neither impaired response inhibition nor enhanced aggressive behavior. In contrast, women showed enhanced overt and covert aggressive behavior under a surge of endogenous cortisol, confirming previous results, albeit only in case of high provocation and only up to the level of the control group. Unlike this rather moderate impact on behavior, cortisol showed a distinct impact on neural correlates of information processing throughout inhibitory control, aggression-eliciting stimuli, and emotional pictures for both men and women. At this, stress-induced increase of cortisol resulted in enhanced N2 amplitudes to Go stimuli, whereas P2 amplitudes to both and N2 to Nogo amplitudes retained unchanged, indicating an overcorrection and caution of the response activation in favor of successful inhibitory control. The processing of aggression-eliciting stimuli during the aggressive encounter was complexly altered by stress differently for women and men. Under increased cortisol levels, the frontal or parietal P3 amplitude patterns were either diminished or reversed in the case of high provocation compared to the control group and to cortisol-nonresponders, indicating a desensitization towards aggression-eliciting stimuli in males, but a more elaborate processing of those in women. Moreover, stress-induced cortisol and provocation jointly altered subsequent affective information processing at early as well as later stages of the information processing stream. Again, increased levels of cortisol led opposite directed amplitudes in the case of high provocation relative to the control group and cortisol-nonresponders, with enhanced N2 amplitudes in men and reduced P3 and LPP amplitudes in men and women for all affective pictures, suggesting initially enhanced emotional reactivity in men, but ensuing reduced motivational attention and enhanced emotion regulation in both, men and women. As a result, these present findings confirm the relevance of HPA activity in the elicitation and persistence of human aggressive behavior. Moreover, they reveal the significance of compensatory and emotion regulatory strategies and mechanisms in response to stress and provocation, indorsing the relevance of social information and cognitive control processes. Still, more research is needed to clarify the conditions which lead to the facilitation of aggression and by which compensatory mechanisms this is prevented.
The present thesis addresses the validity of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as well as underlying mechanisms of BED from three different angles. Three studies provide data discriminating obesity with BED from obesity without BED. Study 1 demonstrates differences between obese individuals with and without BED regarding eating in the natural environment, psychiatric comorbidity, negative affect as well as self reported tendencies in eating behavior. Evidence for possible psychological mechanisms explaining increased intake of BED individuals in the natural environment was given by analyzing associations of negative affect, emotional eating, restrained eating and caloric intake in obese BED compared to NBED controls. Study 2 demonstrated stress-induced changes in the eating behavior of obese individuals with BED. The impact of a psychosocial stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST, Kirschbaum, Pirke, &amp;amp; Hellhammer, 1993), on behavioral patterns of eating behavior in laboratory was investigated. Special attention was given to stress-induced changes in variables that reflect mechanisms of appetite regulation in obese BED individuals compared to controls. To further explore by which mechanisms stress might trigger binge eating, study 3 investigated differences in stress-induced cortisol secretion after a socially evaluated cold pressure test (SECPT, Schwabe, Haddad, &amp;amp; Schachinger, 2008) in obese BED as compared to obese NBED individuals.