Specialisation I: Cognitive Affective Neuroscience

This specialisation focuses on investigating the interaction of emotional, cognitive and volitional processes during targeted action control. This combines experimental psychological and cognitive/neuroscientific methods (response time and eye movement measurement; EEG and EKP measurement; imaging techniques) with approaches to psycho-neuroendocrinology and molecular genetics (e.g. analysis of genetic polymorphisms; release of stress hormones). This as of yet only rarely implemented integration of systemic and molecular approaches is made possible thanks to our collaboration with the Chairs of  General Psychology, Biopsychology, Differential & Personal Psychology and Developmental Psychology and was further reinforced in 2010 (in the Social Neuroscience and Computational Neuroscience Departments). The research topics of this specialisation include:

• Cognitive, affective and volitional foundations of targeted behavioural regulation
• Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of voluntary action control
• Affective modulation of executive functions and prefrontal control processes
• Conscious and unconscious determinants of volitional acts
• Emotions and implicit memory, decision-making and judgement processes
• Neuronal correlates of cognitive emotional control
• Molecular and hormonal foundations of behavioural regulation
• Biological and psychological consequences of chronic stress
• Central nervous, endocrine & immunological reactions to psycho-social stress
• Molecular conveyance mechanisms of stress-related illnesses
• Neuronal correlates of memory disorders in trauma victims
• Biopsychological conveyance mechanisms of the transformation of genetic information at a behavioural level
• Relationships between molecular genetic differences in monoaminergic neurotransmission and electrocortical, cognitive and behavioural correlates of personality
• Development of cognitive performance over a person's lifetime
• Developmental neuroscience
• Health and health behaviour over a person's lifetime
• Learning and plasticity over a person's lifetime

Some of these topics are already being handled in specific research collaborations between the specialisation Chairs (e.g. in the form of joint DFG projects) and in inter-disciplinary collaborative projects. Specialisation I can also be linked with the two application-based specialisation. It can be linked with Specialisation II due to the importance of affective, cognitive and volitional processes and their neuronal, hormonal and molecular-genetic correlates for the development and prevention of mental illnesses. It can be linked with Specialisation III due to the relevance of cognitive and biopsychological insights into cognitive and affective processes, including for socio-cognitive neuroscience, occupational and corporate psychology, engineering psychology, teaching and learning research, as well as transport and traffic psychology.