Translational Social Neuroscience

We study how social interactions shape human motivation, learning and behavior, and how they can be used as a tool for the diagnosis and therapy of psychological disorders, e.g., from the anxiety disorder spectrum. Our approach integrates neuroscience, social and experimental psychology, and behavioral economics. We use a range of methods including brain imaging, computational modeling, ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and behavioral experiments.

Third-party funding (selection of current projects)

German Research Foundation

• Neural mechanisms of (mal)adaptive approach and avoidance behaviour
• Clinical Research group ResolvePAIN
• Heisenbergprofessur and Research grants, e.g., focusing on social motives

Volkswagenstiftung

• Project: The long-term effects of Corona on mental health: Trajectories of adaptive and maladaptive coping

Sino-German Center for Science Promotion

• Mobility Grant: Cultural neuroscience research on social motivation and behavior

Team

Head

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Grit Hein, Dipl.-Psych.
E-Mail: Hein_G@ ukw.de
Telefon: +49 931 201 77411

Academic staff

• Jasper Bischofberger
• Marthe Gründahl
• Anna Reinhard
  
• Anne Saulin
• Martin Weiß
• Yuqing Zhou

Current research topics

Social Motives (e.g. empathy, reciprocity, egoism etc.):

• Neuronal processing
• Interactions between different motives
• Interactions between social motives and cognitive processes (e.g., learning and decision processes

Impact of social interactions on clinically relevant processes (e.g., anxiety, pain)

• Identifying social factors and specifying types of social interactions that reduce anxiety and pain
• Effect of social interactions in every-day life on mental and physical health

Publications

Publications of the working group can be found here or on pubmed.

Click here for media coverage of our work.

Please also visit us on Twitter.