Lifespan Neuroscience Research Group

Overview

Our group studies how aging influences cognition and emotion using behavioral tools, peripheral physiology as well as structural, functional and pharmacological neuroimaging methodologies. We have a major current focus being the differentiation between successful and non-successful aging with respect to emotional health. The latter seems to be maintained by compensatory and adaptive mechanisms in response to age-related life and brain changes. We want to know how the brain contributes to this adaptation and whether/why this adaptation is lacking in non-successful aging like late-life depression. In our current studies, we investigate how emotional resilience in aging but also in younger age is modulated by cognitive and emotional regulation strategies, lifestyle behavior (i.e. weight management) and – as part of the newly established CRC 289 - treatment expectations.

  • Staff

    • Homeostatic, cognitive and neural modulators of eating behavior in young and older adults
    • Decision making and counterfactual thinking in aging
    • Effects of expectation on emotional processing across the life-span

  • Tiedemann LJ, Alink A, Beck J, Büchel C, Brassen S (2020) Valence encoding signals in the human amygdala and the willingness to eat. J Neurosci 40(27):5264-5272.

    Francke P, Tiedemann LJ, Menz MM, Beck J, Büchel C, Brassen S (2019) Mesolimbic white matter connectivity mediates the preference for sweet food. Sci Rep 9(1):4349.

    Tiedemann LJ, Schmid SM, Hettel J, Giesen K, Francke P, Büchel C, Brassen S (2017) Central insulin modulates food valuation via mesolimbic pathways. Nature Communications 8:16052.

    Sasse LK, Peters J, Büchel C, Brassen S: Effects of prospective thinking on intertemporal choice: The role of familiarity. Hum Brain Mapp 2015; 36(10):4210-21.

    Brassen S, Gamer M, Peters J, Gluth S, Büchel C: Don't look back in anger! Responsiveness to missed chances in successful aging. Science 2012; 336(6081):612-4.

    Brassen S, Gamer M, Büchel C: Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging. Biol Psychiatry 2011; 70(2):131-7.

    Brassen S, Gamer M, Rose M, Büchel C: The influence of directed covert attention on emotional face processing. Neuroimage 2010; 50(2):545-51.

    Brassen S, Kalisch R, Weber-Fahr W, Braus DF, Büchel C: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex processing during emotional evaluation in late-life depression: a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Biol Psychiatry 2008; 64(4):349-55.

  • CRC 289 Treatment Expectation, Project A06: Effects of expectation on emotional processing across the lifespan: the role of fronto-limbic function and attentional control (ID 422744262)

    DFG Research Grant: The role of mesocorticolimbic networks for emotional adaptation and well-being in the second half of life (BR 2877/7-1)

    DFG Research Grant: Metabolic-cognitive control of food choices and long-term dietary success in aging (BR 2877/6-1)

    CRC 134 Ingestive Behaviour: Homeostasis and Reward, Project C03: The influence of weight and weight loss on homeostatic, mnestic and reward-related brain circuits in older adults

    DFG Research Grant: Decision making in successful aging: Influence of temporal distance and socioemotional relevance (BR2877/2-2)

    DFG Research Grant: Emotional processing in successful aging and late-life depression (BR2877/2-1)

    DFG Research Grant: Decision making in successful aging: Influence of temporal distance and socioemotional relevance (BR2877/2-2)

    Young Scientist Grant: UKE Multimodal neuroimaging study for the early detection of preclinical dementia (FFM F-154)

  • Poster award 2016 of the German Psychological Society (DGPs; Section Biological Psychology) for the poster “"Insulin resistance and central insulin effects on food liking”" (Lena Tiedemann)

    New Investigator Travel Award 2016 of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) in recognition of research project presentation at the 24th Annual Meeting of the SSIB, Porto, Portugal (Lena Tiedemann)

    Travel Award 2013 of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in recognition of research project presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, USA (Laura Sasse)

    Paper of the Month (POM) 2009 awarded by the Medial School of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf for the paper Brassen et al.: "“Don’t look back in anger! Responsiveness to missed chances in successful and nonsuccessful aging”", published in Science

    Faculty Young Investigator Grant 2005 of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Stefanie Brassen)

  • There are no vacancies at the moment.

Postdoc

Joshua Baker

My project explores the effects of the induction of positive expectation, on emotional processing under different attentional states, in healthy young adults, and both healthy older adults and those with Later Life Depression (LLD). In using functional neuroimaging, I will explore the top-down control of emotional inputs as regulated by fronto-limbic systems, and examine how such regulation is modulated as a function of attention, age, and LLD.

Physician

Jonas Rauh

Within the SFB-TRR 289 I investigate in what way positive expectations influence emotional processing, focussing on the behaviour of patients with a late life depression (LLD). For this purpose, together with Josh, we combine behavioural paradigms and physical measures with high-resolution imaging techniques. As study physician I am further responsible for medical and psychiatric screening and obtaining informed consent of the participants.

PhD Students

Vivien Breckwoldt

I investigate the metabolic-cognitive control of food choices and long-term dietary success in aging. There is evidence that central insulin may also affect prefrontal networks involved in cognitive control, but whether central insulin impacts on self-control during eating decisions is still unknown. In a crossover, placebo-controlled, double-blind fMRI study, I combine a newly developed self-control paradigm with previously established protocols of intranasal insulin application.

Riccardo Mattia Galli

My project’s aim is to investigate possible behavioural and neuronal predictors of emotional well-being across the lifespan, with a specific focus on older adults. Therefore, I work on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) connectivity data combined with behavioural and cognitive tests from the Hamburg City Health Study (HCHS) database with the intent to discover how people can successfully undergo emotional adaptation when confronting late life adversities.

Student Assistant

Ronja Alexandra Eppel

Eun Jin Shim

Alumni

Katrin Giesen, MD Physician

Judith Hettel, M.Sc. Psychology PhD student

Laura Katharina Sasse, Postdoc

Sophia Schneider, Postdoc

Paul Francke, cand. Med. MD student

Lena Tiedemann, M.Sc. Neuroscience PhD student