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• Salles, Juliette; Yrondi, Antoine; Marhar, Fouad; Andant, Nicolas; Dorlhiac, Raimundo Avilés & Quach, Binh [Show all 66 contributors for this article] (2021). Changes in Cannabis Consumption During the Global COVID-19 Lockdown: The International COVISTRESS Study. Frontiers in Psychiatry. ISSN 1664-0640. 12. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.689634. Full text in Research Archive
• Paul, Katharina; Tik, Martin; Hahn, Andreas; Sladky, Ronald; Geissberger, Nicole & Wirth, Eva-Maria [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Give me a pain that I am used to: distinct habituation patterns to painful and non‑painful stimulation. Scientific Reports. ISSN 2045-2322. 11. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01881-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Pain habituation is associated with a decrease of activation in brain areas related to pain perception. However, little is known about the specificity of these decreases to pain, as habituation has also been described for other responses like spinal reflexes and other sensory responses. Thus, it might be hypothesized that previously reported reductions in activation are not specifically related to pain habituation. For this reason, we performed a 3 T fMRI study using either painful or non-painful electrical stimulation via an electrode attached to the back of the left hand. Contrasting painful vs. non-painful stimulation revealed significant activation clusters in regions well-known to be related to pain processing, such as bilateral anterior and posterior insula, primary/secondary sensory cortices (S1/S2) and anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Importantly, our results show distinct habituation patterns for painful (in aMCC) and non-painful (contralateral claustrum) stimulation, while similar habituation for both types of stimulation was identified in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and contralateral S2. Our findings thus distinguish a general habituation in somatosensory processing (S2) and reduced attention (IFG) from specific pain and non-pain related habituation effects where pain-specific habituation effects within the aMCC highlight a change in affective pain perception.

• Sladky, Ronald; Hahn, Andreas; Karl, Inga-Lisa; Geissberger, Nicole; Kranz, Georg S. & Tik, Martin [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Dynamic causal modeling of the prefrontal-amygdala network during processing of emotional faces. Brain Connectivity. ISSN 2158-0014. doi: 10.1089/brain.2021.0073. Show summary

  Introduction: The importance of the amygdala - medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) network during processing of emotional stimuli, emotional faces in particular, is well established. This premise is supported by converging evidence from animal models, human neuroanatomical results, and neuroimaging studies. However, there is missing evidence from human brain connectivity studies that the OFC and no other prefrontal brain areas such as the DLPFC or VLPFC are responsible for amygdala regulation in the functional context of emotional face stimuli. Methods: Dynamic causal modeling of ultra-high field functional MRI data acquired at 7 Tesla in 38 healthy subjects and a well-established paradigm for emotional face processing were used to assess the central role of the OFC in order to provide empirical validation for the assumed network architecture. Results: Using Bayesian model selection, it is demonstrated that indeed the OFC, and not the VLPFC and the DLPFC, down regulates amygdala activation during the emotion discrimination task. Additionally, Bayesian model averaging group results were rigorously tested using bootstrapping, further corroborating these findings and providing an estimator for robustness and optimal sample sizes. Discussion: While it is true that VLPFC and DLPFC are relevant for the processing of emotional faces and are connected to the OFC, the OFC appears to be a central hub for prefrontal-amygdala interaction.

• Rütgen, Markus; Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Tik, Martin; Kraus, Christoph; Sladky, Ronald & Pletti, Carolina [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2021). Detached empathic experience of others’ pain in remitted states of depression – An fMRI study. NeuroImage: Clinical. ISSN 2213-1582. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102699. Show summary

  Background Major depressive disorder is strongly associated with impairments and difficulties in social interactions. Deficits in empathy, a vital skill for social interactions, have been identified as a risk factor for relapse. However, research on empathy in remitted states of depression is scarce. We chose a social neuroscience approach to investigate potentially altered neural processes involved in sub-components of empathy in remitted states of depression. We expected aberrations in cognitive components of empathy, based on previous reports regarding their role as risk factors for relapse. Methods Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging and a pain empathy task (video clips of painful medical treatments), we compared behavioral and neural empathic responses of unmedicated remitted depressive patients (N = 32) to those of untreated acutely depressed patients (N = 29) and healthy controls (N = 35). Self-report ratings of pain evaluation and affect-sharing were obtained. Results Compared to controls and acutely depressed patients, remitted depressive patients reported higher pain evaluation and showed increased activity in the right temporo-parietal junction. This region, which is central to self-other distinction and which has been linked to adopting a detached perspective, also exhibited reduced connectivity to the anterior insula. Furthermore, we observed reduced activity in regions involved in emotion processing (amygdala) and perception of affective facial expressions (fusiform face area, posterior superior temporal sulcus). Conclusions Remitted states of depression are associated with a detached empathic style in response to others’ pain, characterized by increased self-other distinction, lowered affective processing, and reduced connectivity between empathy-related brain regions. Although this may prevent emotional harm in specific situations, it may reduce opportunities for positive experiences in social interactions in the long run.

• Rauchbauer, Birgit; Lorenz, Corinna; Lamm, Claus & Pfabigan, Daniela M. (2021). Interplay of self-other distinction and cognitive control mechanisms in a social automatic imitation task. An ERP study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. ISSN 1530-7026. 21, p. 639–655. doi: 10.3758/s13415-021-00878-w. Show summary

  The regulation of motor resonance processes in daily life is indispensable. The automatic imitation task is an experimental model of those daily-life motor resonance processes. Recent research suggests that both self-other distinction and cognitive control processes may be involved in interference control during automatic imitation. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of the chronological sequence of interacting processes. To this end, this study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course underlying interference control during automatic imitation. We moreover aimed to extend previous results by investigating its modulation by social context. Cognitive conflict/action monitoring was assessed with the N2, in an exploratory manner the N450, and the CRN components. The Pre-Motor Positivity (PMP), associated with movement initiation, was suggested as a possible correlate of the successful resolution of self-other distinction. The cognitive control/action monitoring ERP components were influenced by the social context manipulation and partly by congruency, while PMP amplitudes were only sensitive to congruency. In addition, the exploratorily investigated N450 component predicted response times on incongruent relative to congruent trials in the different social contexts. This suggested that cognitive control/action monitoring processes, reflected in the N450, are guiding behavioral outcomes. Overall, interference control may primarily be guided by processes of cognitive control/action monitoring, whilst being modulated by social context demands.

• Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Rütgen, Markus; Kroll, Sara Liane; Riečanský, Igor & Lamm, Claus (2021). The administration of the opioid buprenorphine decreases motivational error signals. Psychoneuroendocrinology. ISSN 0306-4530. 128. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105199. Full text in Research Archive
• Kroll, Sara Liane; Thayer, Julian F.; Williams, DeWayne P.; Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Baumgartner, Markus R. & Lamm, Claus [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2021). Chronic non-medical prescription opioid use and empathy for pain: Does pain make the difference? Psychophysiology. ISSN 0048-5772. 58. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13776. Show summary

  Non-medical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) is at the heart of the opioid epidemic in the United States. Although chronic opioid use is commonly accompanied by deficits in social functioning, little is known about the impact of chronic NMPOU on social cognitive functions. Social neuroscience models suggest that empathy activates similar or even equivalent neural structures as those underpinning the first-hand experience in that emotional state (e.g., pain). Therefore, we measured subjective and psychophysiological responses during an empathy-for-pain task in 23 individuals with NMPOU, objectively confirmed by hair and urine testing, and compared them with 29 opioid-naïve healthy controls. NMPOU individuals showed lower other-related and self-related unpleasantness ratings when seeing others in pain than controls. No differences between the control and NMPOU group were found in skin conductance responses and heart rate variability (HRV) assessed by root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) in response to the task. However, RMSSD-HRV was strongly negatively correlated with self-related unpleasantness and craving in the NMPOU group. A subsequent mediation analysis showed a total effect of RMSSD-HRV on self-related unpleasantness with no mediation of craving. This indicates that stronger emotion regulation indexed by high RMSSD-HRV might have downregulating effects on sharing others' pain in NMPOU individuals but not in healthy controls, which was further accompanied by decreased ratings of personal distress and empathetic concern. These results contribute to a better understanding of social functioning in chronic opioid users, suggesting adequate emotion regulation and empathy trainings as therapeutic targets for future interventions of opioid use disorders and long-term pain treatment with opioids.

• Schéle, Erik; Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Simrén, Joel; Sailer, Uta & Dickson, Suzanne L. (2020). Ghrelin Induces Place Preference for Social Interaction in the Larger Peer of a Male Rat Pair. Neuroscience. ISSN 0306-4522. 447(1), p. 148–154. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.01.027. Full text in Research Archive
• Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Mielacher, Clemens; Dutheil, Frédéric & Lamm, Claus (2020). ERP evidence suggests that confrontation with deterministic statements aligns subsequent other- and self-relevant error processing. Psychophysiology. ISSN 0048-5772. 57(8). doi: 10.1111/psyp.13556. Full text in Research Archive
• Riečanský, Igor; Lengersdorff, Lukas L; Pfabigan, Daniela M. & Lamm, Claus (2020). Increasing self-other bodily overlap increases sensorimotor resonance to others' pain. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. ISSN 1530-7026. 20, p. 19–33. doi: 10.3758/s13415-019-00724-0. Show summary

  Empathy for another person's pain and feeling pain oneself seem to be accompanied by similar or shared neural responses. Such shared responses could be achieved by mapping the bodily states of others onto our own bodily representations. We investigated whether sensorimotor neural responses to the pain of others are increased when experimentally reducing perceived bodily distinction between the self and the other. Healthy adult participants watched video clips of the hands of ethnic ingroup or outgroup members being painfully penetrated by a needle syringe or touched by a cotton swab. Manipulating the video presentation to create a visuospatial overlap between the observer's and the target's hand increased the perceived bodily self-attribution of the target's hand. For both ingroup and outgroup targets, this resulted in increased neural responses to the painful injections (compared with nonpainful contacts), as indexed by desynchronizations of central mu and beta scalp rhythms recorded using electroencephalography. Furthermore, these empathy-related neural activations were stronger in participants who reported stronger bodily self-attribution of the other person's hand. Our findings provide further evidence that empathy for pain engages sensorimotor resonance mechanisms. They also indicate that reducing bodily self-other distinction may increase such resonance for ingroup as well as outgroup targets.

• Gao, Tianyu; Zhou, Yuqing; Li, Wenxin; Pfabigan, Daniela M. & Han, Shihui (2020). Neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning under mortality threat. Social Neuroscience. ISSN 1747-0919. 15(2), p. 170–185. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2019. Show summary

  Reinforcement learning - to adjust behaviors in response to feedback regarding reward and punishment - is pivotal to our survival. The present work investigated whether and how reinforcement learning is affected by thoughts of mortality that endanger one's survival. We recorded electroencephalographic while adults performed a probabilistic learning task that required a forced-choice between two visual patterns for monetary reward for different beneficiaries (i.e., self, stranger, or no one) followed by reward or no-reward feedback. We found that verbal reminders of mortality (vs. negative emotion) enlarged an early positive component (P1) at the occipital electrodes but decreased a late positive potential (LPP) at the frontocentral electrodes in response to learning stimuli. While no-reward feedback relative to reward feedback stimuli elicited a feedback-related negativity (FRN) and increased non-phase locked theta band (4-8 Hz) activity at the frontocentral electrodes during reward learning for all beneficiaries, verbal reminders of mortality (vs. negative emotion) significantly reduced the FRN amplitude but failed to modulate the theta band activity. These results suggest that mortality salience enhances early attentional processing but dampens late cognitive evaluation of the learning stimuli during reinforcement learning. Moreover, mortality salience decreases the neural sensitivity to feedback signaling the absence of monetary reward.

• Dutheil, Frédéric; Chaplais, Elodie; Vilmant, Audrey; Lanoir, Denise; Courteix, Daniel & Duche, Pascale [Show all 18 contributors for this article] (2019). Effects of a short residential thermal spa program to prevent work-related stress/burnout on stress biomarkers: the ThermStress proof of concept study . Journal of International Medical Research. ISSN 0300-0605. doi: 10.1177/0300060519859119. Show summary

  Objective Work-related stress is a public health issue. Stress has multiple physical and psychological consequences, the most serious of which are increased mortality and cardiovascular morbidity. The ThermStress protocol was designed to offer a short residential thermal spa program for work-related stress prevention that is compatible with a professional context. Methods Participants will be 56 male and female workers aged 18 years or above. All participants will undergo a 6-day residential spa program comprising psychological intervention, physical activity, thermal spa treatment, health education, eating disorder therapy and a follow-up. On six occasions, participants’ heart rate variability, cardiac remodelling and function, electrodermal activity, blood markers, anthropometry and body composition, psychology and quality of life will be measured using questionnaires and bone parameters. Results This study protocol reports the planned and ongoing research for this intervention. Discussion The ThermStress protocol has been approved by an institutional ethics committee (ANSM: 2016 A02082 49). It is expected that this proof of concept study will highlight the effect of a short-term specific residential thermal spa program on the prevention of occupational burnout and work-related stress. The findings will be disseminated at several research conferences and in published articles in peer-reviewed journals. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT 03536624, 24/05/2018)

• Rütgen, Markus; Pletti, Carolina; Tik, Martin; Kraus, Christoph; Pfabigan, Daniela M. & Sladky, Ronald [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2019). Antidepressant treatment, not depression, leads to reductions in behavioral and neural responses to pain empathy. Translational Psychiatry. ISSN 2158-3188. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0496-4. Show summary

  Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been hypothesized to lead to impairments in empathy. Previous cross-sectional studies did not disentangle effects of MDD itself and antidepressant treatment. In this first longitudinal neuroimaging study on empathy in depression, 29 patients with MDD participated in two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions before and after 3 months of antidepressant therapy. We compared their responses to an empathy for pain task to a group of healthy controls (N = 35). All participants provided self-report ratings targeting cognitive (perspective taking) and affective (unpleasant affect) aspects of empathy. To control for general effects on processing of negative affective states, participants additionally underwent an electrical pain task. Before treatment, we found no differences in empathic responses between controls and patients with MDD. After treatment, patients showed significant decreases in both affective empathy and activity of three a priori selected brain regions associated with empathy for pain. Decreases in affective empathy were moreover correlated with symptom improvement. Moreover, functional connectivity during the empathy task between areas associated with affective (anterior insula) and cognitive (precuneus) empathy decreased between sessions in the MDD group. Neither cognitive empathy nor responses to painful electrical shocks were changed after treatment. These findings contradict previous cross-sectional reports of empathy deficits in acute MDD. Rather, they suggest that antidepressant treatment reduces the aversive responses triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Importantly, this cannot be explained by a general blunting of negative affect, as treatment did not change self-experienced pain.

• Kraus, Christoph; Seiger, Rene; Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Sladky, Ronald; Tik, Martin & Paul, Katharina [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2019). Hippocampal Subfields in Acute and Remitted Depression-an Ultra-High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. ISSN 1461-1457. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyz030. Show summary

  Background Studies investigating hippocampal volume changes after treatment with serotonergic antidepressants in patients with major depressive disorder yielded inconsistent results, and effects on hippocampal subfields are unclear. Methods To detail treatment effects on total hippocampal and subfield volumes, we conducted an open-label study with escitalopram followed by venlafaxine upon nonresponse in 20 unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder. Before and after 12 weeks treatment, we measured total hippocampal formation volumes and subfield volumes with ultra-high field (7 Tesla), T1-weighted, structural magnetic resonance imaging, and FreeSurfer. Twenty-eight remitted patients and 22 healthy subjects were included as controls. We hypothesized to detect increased volumes after treatment in major depressive disorder. Results We did not detect treatment-related changes of total hippocampal or subfield volumes in patients with major depressive disorder. Secondary results indicated that the control group of untreated, stable remitted patients, compared with healthy controls, had larger volumes of the right hippocampal-amygdaloid transition area and right fissure at both measurement time points. Depressed patients exhibited larger volumes of the right subiculum compared with healthy controls at MRI-2. Exploratory data analyses indicated lower baseline volumes in the subgroup of remitting (n = 10) vs nonremitting (n = 10) acute patients. Conclusions The results demonstrate that monoaminergic antidepressant treatment in major depressive disorder patients was not associated with volume changes in hippocampal subfields. Studies with larger sample sizes to detect smaller effects as well as other imaging modalities are needed to further assess the impact of antidepressant treatment on hippocampal subfields.

• Dutheil, Frédéric; Chaplais, Elodie; Vilmant, Audrey; Courteix, Daniel; Duche, Pascale & Abergel, Armand [Show all 18 contributors for this article] (2019). Stress management in obesity during a thermal spa residential programme (ObesiStress): protocol for a randomised controlled trial study. BMJ Open. ISSN 2044-6055. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027058. Show summary

  Introduction Stress and obesity are two public health issues. The relationship between obesity and stress is biological through the actions of stress on the major hormones that regulate appetite (leptin and ghrelin). Many spa resorts in France specialise in the treatment of obesity, but no thermal spa currently proposes a specific programme to manage stress in obesity. The ObesiStress protocol has been designed to offer a new residential stress management programme. This thermal spa treatment of obesity implements stress management strategies as suggested by international recommendations. Methods and analysis 140 overweight or obese participants with a Body Mass Index of >25 kg/m2 and aged over 18 years will be recruited. Participants will be randomised into two groups: a control group of usual practice (restrictive diet, physical activity and thermal spa treatment) and an intervention group with stress management in addition to the usual practice. In the present protocol, parameters will be measured on five occasions (at inclusion, at the beginning of the spa (day 0), at the end of the spa (day 21), and at 6 and 12 months). The study will assess the participants’ heart rate variability, cardiac remodelling and function, electrodermal activity, blood markers, anthropometric profile, body composition, psychology and quality of life via the use of questionnaires and bone parameters. Ethics and dissemination The ObesiStress protocol complies with the ethics guidelines for Clinical Research and has been approved by the ethics committee (CPP Sud- Est VI, Clermont- Ferrand - ANSM: 2016- A01774-47). This study aimed to highlight the efficacy of a 21- day thermal spa residential programme of stress management in obesity through objective measurements of well- being and cardiovascular morbidity. Results will be disseminated during several research conferences and articles published in peer- reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT03578757.

• Rosenberger, Lisa Anna; Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Lehner, Benjamin; Keckeis, Katinka; Seidel, Eva-Maria & Eisenegger, Christoph [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2019). Fairness norm violations in anti-social psychopathic offenders in a repeated trust game. Translational Psychiatry. ISSN 2158-3188. 9(266). doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0606-3. Full text in Research Archive
• Pfabigan, Daniela M. & Han, Shihui (2019). Converging electrophysiological evidence for a processing advantage of social over nonsocial feedback. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. ISSN 1530-7026. doi: 10.3758/s13415-019-00737-9. Show summary

  We recently demonstrated a processing advantage of social versus nonsocial feedback stimuli in a western sample by assessing phase-locked neural responses. The current study extended our previous findings to another cultural sample (Chinese) to further test whether non-phase-locked neural oscillations also exhibit the social feedback processing advantage. Fifty-three Chinese volunteers performed a time estimation task with social and nonsocial feedback stimuli (matched for complexity) while electroencephalogram was recorded. Almost entirely replicating our previous results, feedback ERPs showed a processing advantage for social compared with nonsocial stimuli. Importantly, non-phase-locked oscillations also revealed this pattern. Frontal midline theta (FMΘ) oscillations differentiated between negative and positive feedback to a larger extent in response to social compared with nonsocial feedback. The current findings imply a rather universal effect of social stimulus characteristics during feedback processing and further corroborate the notion of social content as a distinct stimulus category.

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• Pfabigan, Daniela M. & Sailer, Uta (2021). BEING FASTED REDUCES TOUCH REWARD. Show summary

  Hunger constitutes one of the strongest motivators in the animal kingdom with the potential to override almost all competing incentives. While short-term hunger is ubiquitous in our daily lives, we do not know whether it is strong enough to override strong interpersonal incentives such as affective touch. Thus, this neuroimaging study investigated whether touch reward is influenced by one’s metabolic state. In a within-subject study, 60 participants (16 women) remained once fasted, while they started the other test session with a standardized meal. All rated pleasantness and stimulus intensity for slow (0.3cm/s), CT-targeted (3cm/s), and fast (30cm/s) touch applied to the right shin. For 45 participants (11 women), 3T fMRI data were collected during touch processing. Touch was rated as more pleasant when participants were satiated than when fasted. Additionally, participants rated CT-targeted touch as most pleasant. In accordance, brain activation was enhanced in the right supramarginal gyrus and bilateral paracingulate areas during CT-targeted touch when participants were satiated compared to fasted (cluster-level FWE-corrected p<.05). The more participants reported to enjoy CT-targeted touch when satiated compared to being fasted, the higher the corresponding activation levels in paracingulate areas. Our results are in line with animal studies on motivational hierarchies, as fasting obviously decreased the pleasantness of affective touch. This suggests that metabolic needs can overshadow the rewarding effects of otherwise pleasant stimuli provided in another modality.

• Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Ree, Anbjørn & Sailer, Uta (2021). Being hungry decreases the pleasantness of touch.
• Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Rütgen, Markus & Lamm, Claus (2020). Buprenorphine dampens motivational significance of errors. Psychophysiology. ISSN 0048-5772. 57. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13670.
• Zheng, Ya; Gu, Ruolei & Pfabigan, Daniela M. (2020). Editorial: Temporal Dynamics of Reward Processing in Humans: From Anticipation to Consummation. Frontiers in Psychology. ISSN 1664-1078. 11(1901). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01901.

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