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Department of Psychology

Overview

Research Projects

Verbal Fluency as a Window into the Mechanisms of Creative Language Production

Content:

Creative language production is traditionally characterised as being both original and effective, which can be measured using two types of tasks
Verbal Fluency Task: generation of example regarding a semantic category
Emotional Word Fluency Task: generation of words relating to emotion and emotional subcategories

Procedure:

Measurement of facets of creative language using different semantic and emotional categories, which place stronger demands on vocabulary or on creativity
Expansion of the verbal fluency task to cover more naturalistic discourse situations, where dyads of interactants perform the task together

Method:

Determination of speakers’ semantic network representations using computational methods
Relation of verbal fluency tasks to various other measures: cognitive tasks, cognitive flexibility and divergent thinking
Combination of behavioural tasks with functional MRI to relate different metrics of the fluency task to activity patterns in the brain’s networks for language, emotion, executive functions and domain-specific knowledge
Exploration which brain networks are involved in which aspects of the creative process

Aim:

Characterisation of cognitive, linguistic and cerebral resources that play a role in successfully performing the verbal fluency task
Elucidation of underlying processing principles.

The project is funded by the "Deutsche Förderungsgemeinschaft" (DFG) as part of SFBs Linguistic Creativity in Communication.

For more information, got to:

SFB-Homepage

SFB 1646 Teilprojekt CR05

Overview of Members

Memory in Temporal Lobe and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

Content:

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) call for surgical interventions in cases of drug resistent patients
Surgery may lead to unwanted effects such as post-surgical mnestic impairments
Changes in mnestic abilities post-surgery are not individually predictable
Associations between lesion locality and memory performance as well as post-operative alterations are unclear, especially in FLE cases

Approach of the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study:

Comparison of pre-surgery memory performance with the extent of memory changes after the surgery in TLE and FLE patients
Inspection of associations between lesion respectively resection locality and pre- and post-surgery memory performances using voxel based symptom lesion mapping
Deployment of a multimodal fMRI-learning-paradgim to investigate how temporal and frontal lobe lesions involve differential neural correlates and their association with pre-surgical mnestic abilities

fMRI:

Pre-Surgical activation serve as predictors for mnestic performance alterations:

fMRI-learning-paradigm
Word-fluency-fMRI
Activations of the default mode network
Respective measures of functional connectivity
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data
Voxelbased morphometry data

The best predictors will be integrated into a comprehensive model.

Partial Goals:
Better comprehension of:

Pre-surgical mnestic abilities and their neural correlates
Changes in mnestic abilities after surgical interventions in TLE and FLE patients
Predictions of post-surgery changes in memory performances in TLE and for the first time also in FLE patients
The “human lesion model”
The principal signification of temporal and frontal brain regions for memory processes

End Goals:

Development of an multi-factorial prediction model for every patient group
Relevant parameters for the model:
- Neuropsychological and disease specific predictors
- MRI-based parameters to capture the pre-surgical functional and structural integrity of epileptogenic areas, which are resected

The project is ended on 31.08.2023.

The project was funded by the "Deutsche Förderungsgemeinschaft" (DFG).

Emotion processing, Emotion Regulation and their Neural Correlates in Patients with Temporal Lobe and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

The project, which was funded by the "Gerhard-Altenhof-Stiftung", ended on 31.03.2023.

Emotional Processing Post Temporal Lobe Resection

Content:

Investigation of consequences unilateral temporal lobe resection
Examination of the perceptual and memory performance regarding visually presented emotional negative and neutral pictures, faces and words is focused

Resections:

Include either the removal of amygdala, hippocampus and adjacent structures
Or the removal of amygdala and the anterior temporal lobe; the hippocampus remains intact

Electroencephalography (EEG):

Electrophysiological examination of
- How resections reduce affective event related potentials (ERP)
- The type of reduction: specific to material or hemisphere
- Differences between resection types in amplitudes of affective ERPs

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI):

To discern if
- Temporal lobe resections lead to changed cerebral activation when perceiving affective stimuli
- Effects specific to material or hemisphere arise
- Resection types differ in intensity and spacial distribution in observed effects

Objective:

The combination of data shall enhance the comprehension of the causal role of the amygdala and adjacent areas within the processing of affective stimuli

The project ended on 31.12.2021.

(Former) Employees:

M.Sc. Malena Mielke
M.Sc. Lea Marie Reisch (born Stieghorst)
Mohamed Alexander Seriyo

The project is funded by the "Deutsche Förderungsgemeinschaft" (DFG).

NeuroCommTrainer

Objectives:

Development of an adaptive system
Which enable massively brain damaged patients to rehabilitate lost means of communication options and ameliorate restricted communication

The NeuroCommTrainer can: