In this thesis, in order to shed light on the biological function of the membrane-bound Glucocorticoid Receptor (mGR), proteomic changes induced by 15 min in vivo acute stress and by short in vitro activation of the mGR were analyzed in T-lymphocytes. The numerous overlaps between the two datasets suggest that the mGR mediates physiologically relevant actions and participates in the early stress response, triggering rapid early priming events that pave the way for the slower genomic GC activities. In addition, a new commercially available method with suitable sensitivity to detect the human mGR is reported and the transcriptional origin of this protein investigated. Our results indicates that specific GR-transcripts, containing exon 1C and 1D, are associated with the expression of this membrane isoform.

Many eye tracking studies use facial stimuli presented on a display to investigate attentional processing of social stimuli. To introduce a more realistic approach that allows interaction between two real people, we evaluated a new eye tracking setup in three independent studies in terms of data quality, short-term reliability and feasibility. Study 1 measured the robustness, precision and accuracy for calibration stimuli compared to a classical display-based setup. Study 2 used the identical measures with an independent study sample to compare the data quality for a photograph of a face (2D) and the face of the real person (3D). Study 3 evaluated data quality over the course of a real face-to-face conversation and examined the gaze behavior on the facial features of the conversation partner. Study 1 provides evidence that quality indices for the scene-based setup were comparable to those of a classical display-based setup. Average accuracy was better than 0.4° visual angle. Study 2 demonstrates that eye tracking quality is sufficient for 3D stimuli and robust against short interruptions without re-calibration. Study 3 confirms the long-term stability of tracking accuracy during a face-to-face interaction and demonstrates typical gaze patterns for facial features. Thus, the eye tracking setup presented here seems feasible for studying gaze behavior in dyadic face-to-face interactions. Eye tracking data obtained with this setup achieves an accuracy that is sufficient for investigating behavior such as eye contact in social interactions in a range of populations including clinical conditions, such as autism spectrum and social phobia.

Cortisol exhibits typical ultradian and circadian rhythm and disturbances in its secretory pattern have been described in stress-related pathology. The aim of this thesis was to dissect the underlying structure of cortisol pulsatility and to develop tools to investigate the effects of this pulsatility on immune cell trafficking and the responsiveness of the neuroendocrine system and GR target genes to stress. Deconvolution modeling was set up as a tool for investigation of the pulsatile secretion underlying the ultradian cortisol rhythm. This further allowed us to investigate the role of the single cortisol pulses on the immune cell trafficking and the role of induced cortisol pulses on the kinetics of expression of GR target genes. The development of these three tools, would allow to induce and investigate in future the significance of single cortisol pulses for health and disease.

In a number of experiments, emotional pictures elicited a frontal positive slow wave in the event-related potential (ERP). This slow wave was initially interpreted as an indes of affective information processing, but one experiment showed that this component was also elicited by emotional neutral pictures in a cognitiven processing task. The aim of the present work was to reanalyse the functional significance of this slow wave. A first section of this work presents a theoretical examination of visual pathways by the brain. This section is supplemented by an overview of the principals of ERP methodology and a review of methods to correct ocular artifacts in the ERP. A second section describes two experiments. The aim of the first experiment was to examine the hypothesis that the frontal positive slow wave is an artifact of eye movements due to the presentation of visual stimuli. This hypothesis was examined with a paradigm that facilitates a systematic variation of eye movements by the visual presentation of matrices. The aim of the second experiment was to examine the hypothesis that a mere perceptual analysis of pictures does not elicit the frontal positive slow wave, but that a content analysis of the pictures is required to elicit this component. This hypothesis was investigated by a variation of content processing demands while the pictures were presented. The results of both experiments confirmed the main hypotheses.

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) influences the perception of taste and texture, features both relevant in acquiring food liking and, with time, food preference. However, no studies have yet investigated the relationship between basal activity levels of sAA and food preference. We collected saliva from 57 volunteers (63% women) who we assessed in terms of their preference for different food items. These items were grouped into four categories according to their nutritional properties: high in starch, high in sugar, high glycaemic index, and high glycaemic load. Anthropometric markers of cardiovascular risk were also calculated. Our findings suggest that sAA influences food preference and body composition in women. Regression analysis showed that basal sAA activity is inversely associated with subjective but not self-reported behavioural preference for foods high in sugar. Additionally, sAA and subjective preference are associated with anthropometric markers of cardiovascular risk. We believe that this pilot study points to this enzyme as an interesting candidate to consider among the physiological factors that modulate eating behaviour.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that acts on the central nervous system in order to support adaptation and time-adjusted coping processes. Whereas previous research has focused on slow emerging, genomic effects of cortisol likely mediated by protein synthesis, there is only limited knowledge about rapid, non-genomic cortisol effects on in vivo neuronal cell activity in humans. Three independent placebo-controlled studies in healthy men were conducted to test effects of 4 mg cortisol on central nervous system activity, occurring within 15 minutes after intravenous administration. Two of the studies (N = 26; N = 9) used continuous arterial spin labeling as a magnetic resonance imaging sequence, and found rapid bilateral thalamic perfusion decrements. The third study (N = 14) revealed rapid cortisol-induced changes in global signal strength and map complexity of the electroencephalogram. The observed changes in neuronal functioning suggest that cortisol may act on the thalamic relay of non-relevant background as well as on task specific sensory information in order to facilitate the adaptation to stress challenges. In conclusion, these results are the first to coherently suggest that a physiologically plausible amount of cortisol profoundly affects functioning and perfusion of the human CNS in vivo by a rapid, non-genomic mechanism.

During the last decade, anatomic and physiological neuroscience research has yielded extensive information on the physiological regulators of short-term satiety, visceral and interoceptive sensation. Distinct neural circuits regulate the elements of food ingestion physiologically. The general aim of the current studies is to elucidate the peripheral neural pathways to the brain in healthy subjects to establish the groundwork for the study of the pathophysiology of bulimia nervosa (BN). We aimed to define the central activation pattern during non-nutritive gastric distension in humans, and aimed to define the cognitive responses to this mechanical gastric distension. We estimated regional cerebral blood flow with 15O-water positron emission tomography during intragastric balloon inflation and deflation in 18 healthy young women of normal weight. The contrast between inflated minus deflated in the exploratory analysis revealed activation in more than 20 brain regions. The analysis confirmed several well known areas in the central nervous system that contribute to visceral processing: the inferior frontal cortex, representing a zone of convergence for food related stimuli; the insula and operculum referred to as "visceral cortex"; the anterior cingulate gyrus (and insula), processing affective information; and the brainstem, a site of vagal relay for visceral afferent stimuli. Brain activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex was reproducible. This area is well known for higher cognitive processing, especially reward-related stimuli. The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex with the insular regions may provide a link between the affective and rewarding components of eating and disordered eating as observed in BN and binge-eating obesity. Gastric distension caused a significant rapid, reversible, and reproducible increase in the feelings of fullness, sleepiness, and gastric discomfort as well as a significant rapid, reversible, and reproducible decrease in the feeling of hunger. We showed that mechanical activation of the neurocircuitry involved in meal termination led to the described phenomena. The current brain activation studies of non-painful, proximal gastric distension could provide groundwork in the field of abnormal eating behavior by suggesting a link between visceral sensation and abnormal eating patterns. A potential treatment for disordered eating and obesity could alter the conscious and unconscious perception and interoceptive awareness of gastric distension contributing to meal termination.

Die Somatisierungsstörung, Zustände zahlreicher wechselnder körperlicher Beschwerden, die nicht durch medizinische Befunde erklärbar sind, stellt eine häufige und gravierende, dennoch bisher kaum untersuchte psychische Erkrankung dar. Weitgehend unbekannt sind die Ursachen und der Entstehungsprozess. Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, welche Merkmale für Patienten mit Somatisierungsstörung charakteristisch sind und deshalb als störungsspezifische persönliche Risikofaktoren in Betracht kommen. 110 Patienten in stationärer psycho-therapeutischer Behandlung wurden untersucht. Die Resultate zeigen bei Patienten mit Somatisierungsstörung im Vergleich zu Patienten mit anderen, vorwiegend ängstlich-depressiven psychischen Störungen vermehrte Schwierigkeiten im Erkennen und Benennen von Gefühlen (Alexithymie), eine stärker ausgeprägte Überzeugung, unkalkulierbaren äußeren Einflüssen unterworfen zu sein (fatalistisch-externale Kontrollüberzeugungen) und eine Abweichung im System der hormonellen Stressregulation (Hypothalamus-Hypophysen-Nebennierenrinden-Achsen-Funktion). Weiter ergaben sich Hinweise auf eine Veränderung im Zusammenspiel der Großhirn-Hemisphären (funktionelle hemisphärische Lateralität) bei der Gesamtheit der untersuchten Patienten im Vergleich zu Gesunden. Darüber hinaus konnte eine befriedigende Zuverlässigkeit (Retest-Reliabilität) der verwendeten Methode der Cortisolbestimmung festgestellt werden.

Psychotherapie hat sich in der Behandlung psychischer Störungen als wirksam erwiesen. Im Rahmen der klinisch-psychologischen Forschung und der Psychotherapieforschung sind die Erforschung von Ursachen und Mechanismen psychischer Störungen sowie die Identifikation von Wirkmechanismen von Psychotherapie von zentraler Bedeutung. Wichtiges Element in der Psychotherapie ist die Sprache, sodass die Betrachtung von Sprache bereits sehr früh Eingang in die Forschung fand. Beschäftigten sich frühe Forschungsarbeiten jedoch hauptsächlich mit der sehr zeitaufwendigen qualitativen Auswertung von Sprache, ermöglichen Entwicklungen im Bereich der Computer neue Ansätze wie beispielsweise die quantitative Sprachanalyse mittels Programmen wie dem Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Dieses wörterbuchbasierte Auswertungsprogramm fand Anwendung in den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen wie beispielsweise der Erforschung von Motiven, Gruppenprozessen, Sprache in sozialen Netzwerken und ersten subklinischen Untersuchungen psychischer Störungen. Eine systematische Anwendung auf die Sprache von Patienten und Therapeuten im Rahmen vollständiger Therapiesitzung ist bislang jedoch nicht bekannt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es deshalb in drei Projekten die Anwendbarkeit des Programmes in der klinisch-psychologischen Forschung und Psychotherapieforschung zu untersuchen. Das erste Projekt beschäftigte sich mit der Psychometrie von mittels LIWC ausgewerteter Sprache und fand, dass die Erkennungsraten des Wörterbuchs für die Sprache in Therapiesitzungen über den in der Literatur für das deutsche LIWC berichteten Erkennungsraten jedoch unter denen der aktuellsten englischen Versionen lag. Außerdem wurde angenommen, dass Sprache sowohl eine zeitlich stabile Komponente im Sinne eines Persönlichkeitsmerkmals als auch eine situative Komponente besitzt. Dies ist insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund relevant in der Psychotherapieforschung sowohl Patientenmerkmale als auch Veränderungen abbilden zu wollen. Die Arbeit ging davon aus, dass insbesondere Funktionsworte, also Worte, die Sprache strukturieren jedoch keine inhaltliche Bedeutung besitzen, eher individuell stabil sind, als Inhaltsworte. Entsprechend konnten für einige Wortkategorien ein Bifaktor-Modell mit einem Personen- sowie einem Zeitfaktor und adäquate Omega-Werte als Maß der Messgenauigkeit gefunden werden, für andere Kategorien zeigte sich dies nicht. Hypothesenkonform zeigten die Modelle bessere Passungen für Funktionsworte. Bezüglich der Frage nach der benötigten Länge von Sprachausschnitten aus Therapiesitzung erwies sich die Verwendung der gesamten Sitzung als beste Lösung. Im zweiten Projekt wurden Unterschiede in der Verwendung von Sprache zwischen depressiven Patienten, Patienten mit Angststörung und solchen mit beiden Störungsbildern untersucht. Es zeigten sich Unterschiede in Bezug auf Worte im Zusammenhang mit Traurigkeit und Worte im Zusammenhang mit Angst. Die Unterschiede zeigten sich derart, dass Depressive vermehrt mit Traurigkeit assoziierte Worte verwendeten, wohingegen Angstpatienten verstärkt Worte aus dem Bereich Angst verwendeten. Dies spricht für eine unterschiedliche inhaltliche Orientierung der beiden Störungsbilder. Darüber hinaus zeigten sich bei dimensionaler Betrachtung negative Zusammenhänge zwischen der Gesamtbelastung und Optimismus, positive Zusammenhänge Depression und Pronomengebrauch sowie negative Zusammenhänge zwischen Angst und unterschiedlichen Kategorien sozialer Worte. Im dritten Projekt wurden unterschiedliche weitere Fragestellungen der Psychotherapieforschung wie beispielsweise die Prädiktion von Therapieerfolgt mittels Sprache oder Zusammenhänge zwischen sprachlicher Synchronizität und der therapeutischen Beziehung untersucht. Es zeigten sich einzelne Zusammenhänge allerdings ergab sich kein einheitliches Muster. Die vorliegende Arbeit kommt zusammenfassend zu dem Schluss, dass quantitative Sprachanalyse eine Bereicherung der Psychotherapieforschung darstellt und Sprache als Datenquelle Berücksichtigung finden sollte. Allerdings bedarf es der Weiterentwicklung des LIWC sowie der Erprobung weiterer Verfahren und eine routinemäßige Erhebung von Sprache wird voraussichtlich erst im Zuge neuerer Entwicklungen im Bereich der automatischen Spracherkennung möglich werden.

At any given moment, our senses are assaulted with a flood of information from the environment around us. We need to pick our way through all this information in order to be able to effectively respond to that what is relevant to us. In most cases we are usually able to select information relevant to our intentions from what is not relevant. However, what happens to the information that is not relevant to us? Is this irrelevant information completely ignored so that it does not affect our actions? The literature suggests that even though we mayrnignore an irrelevant stimulus, it may still interfere with our actions. One of the ways in which irrelevant stimuli can affect actions is by retrieving a response with which it was associated. An irrelevant stimulus that is presented in close temporal contiguity with a relevant stimulus can be associated with the response made to the relevant stimulus " an observation termed distractor-response binding (Rothermund, Wentura, & De Houwer, 2005). The studies presented in this work take a closer look at such distractor-response bindings, and therncircumstances in which they occur. Specifically, the study reported in chapter 6 examined whether only an exact repetition of the distractor can retrieve the response with which it was associated, or whether even similar distractors may cause retrieval. The results suggested that even repeating a similar distractor caused retrieval, albeit less than an exact repetition. In chapter 7, the existence of bindings between a distractor and a response were tested beyond arnperceptual level, to see whether they exist at an (abstract) conceptual level. Similar to perceptual repetition, distractor-based retrieval of the response was observed for the repetition of concepts. The study reported in chapter 8 of this work examined the influence of attention on the feature-response binding of irrelevant features. The results pointed towards a stronger binding effects when attention was directed towards the irrelevant feature compared to whenrnit was not. The study in chapter 9 presented here looked at the processes underlying distractor-based retrieval and distractor inhibition. The data suggest that motor processes underlie distractor-based retrieval and cognitive process underlie distractor inhibition. Finally, the findings of all four studies are also discussed in the context of learning.