Project B03 focuses on how expectations, future-directed cognitions shaped by past experiences and contextual cues, contribute to symptom changes in major depressive disorder (MDD). The project aims to elucidate the behavioral and neural mechanisms behind the generation and maintenance of expectations in both MDD patients and healthy controls.
Using fMRI, the study will explore the impact of negative expectations on fear conditioning, reward learning, and theory of mind (ToM), and assess their predictive value for symptom shifts.
Additionally, B03 will collaborate with C02 to investigate how modifying maladaptive expectations can influence the course of MDD.
CRC 393
Affective disorders (AD), including major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), significantly impact global disability and quality of life. While acute symptoms during episodes are better understood, long-term trajectories like recurrences, remissions, and functional decline remain unclear. Our research focuses on the mechanisms, such as cognitive-emotional factors (including expectation), and neurobiological processes that influence these trajectories.
Project B03 aims to identify expectation as one key mechanisms driving symptom changes, integrating cutting-edge mobile assessment, neuroimaging, and machine learning to predict the course of illness in AD.
The integrated research training group (RTG) fosters young researchers in this innovative, interdisciplinary approach, paving the way for personalized, mechanism-based interventions.
The TNM Lab is specifically involved in
RTG activities
B03 Expectations
People
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Straube (PI)
Gina L. Haccou (staff, B03 project)
Dr. Isabelle Ridderbusch (associate, B03 project)
Dr. Alexandros Matsingos (associate, B03 project)
Lennart Müller (associate, B03 project / TAM)
Dr. Tina Meller (staff, RTG)
CRC 393 related publications
Kanske, P., Alexander, N., Bernhardt, N., Ehrlich, S., Groß, J., Culmsee, C., Leehr, E. J., Jansen, A., Jüngling, K., Ritter, P., Straube, B., Wessing, I., Kircher, T., & Wöhr, M. (2025). Key mechanisms of affective disorders CRC/TRR 393 project on mechanisms of emotion regulation, expectation, social cognition, and cognitive-behavioral rhythms. Der Nervenarzt https://doi.org/10.1007/s00115-025-01920-9
Kirchner, L., Kube, T., Berg, M., Eckert, A.-L., Straube, B., Endres, D., Rief, W. (2024). Social expectations in depression. Nat. Rev. Psychol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00386-x
Javaheripour, N., Colic, L., Opel, N., Li, M., Balajoo, S.M., Chand, T., Maleki Balajoo, S., Chand, T., Van der Meer, J., Krylova, M., Izyurov, I., Meller, T., Goltermann, J., Winter, N.R., Meinert, S., Grotegerd, D., Jansen, A., Alexander, N., Usemann, P., Thomas-Odenthal, F., Evermann, U., Wroblewski, A., Brosch, K., Stein, F., Hahn, T., Straube, B., Krug, A., Nenadić, I., Kircher, T., Croy, I., Dannlowski, U., Wagner, G., & Walter, M., (2023). Altered brain dynamic in major depressive disorder: state and trait features. Transl. Psychiatry 13, 261. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02540-0
Ridderbusch, I. C., Wroblewski, A., Yang, Y., Richter, J., Hollandt, M., Hamm, A. O., … Kircher, T. … Straube, B. (2021). Neural adaptation of cingulate and insular activity during delayed fear extinction: A replicable pattern across assessment sites and repeated measurements. NeuroImage, 118157. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118157
Kirchner, L., Eckert, A.-L., Berg, M., Endres, D., Straube, B., Rief, W., (2024). An Active Inference Approach to interpersonal differences in depression. New Ideas Psychol. 74, 101092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2024.101092
Pittig, A., Heinig, I., Goerigk, S., Richter, J., Hollandt, M., Lueken, U., Pauli, P., Deckert, J., Kircher, T., Straube, B., Neudeck, P., Margraf, J., Schneider, S., Hoyer, J., Rief, W., Craske, M.G., Hamm, A.O., Wittchen, H., (2022). Change of Threat Expectancy as Mechanism of Exposure-Based Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders : Evidence From 8 , 484 Exposure Exercises of 605 Patients. Clin. Psychol. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026221101379
Flinkenflügel, K., Meinert, S., Hirtsiefer, C., Grotegerd, D., Gruber, M., Goltermann, J., Winter, N.R., Stein, F., Brosch, K., Leehr, E.J., Böhnlein, J., Dohm, K., Bauer, J., Redlich, R., Hahn, T., Repple, J., Opel, N., Nitsch, R., Jamalabadi, H., Straube, B., Alexander, N., Jansen, A., Nenadić, I., van den Heuvel, M.P., Thiel, K., Winter, A., Thomas-Odenthal, F., Usemann, P., Teutenberg, L., Pfarr, J.-K., Kircher, T., Dannlowski, U. (2024). Associations between white matter microstructure and cognitive decline in major depressive disorder versus controls in Germany: a prospective case-control cohort study. The Lancet Psychiatry 11, 899–909. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00291-8 IF: 30.8
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