How does our brain work? Is our knowledge sufficient to predict individual human behavior? Dr. Tamás Spisák, new Professor of Predictive Neuroscience at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Duisburg-Essen, is developing biomarkers. Read more about his future plans here (picture UDE/Bettina Engel-Albustin). We are so happy for him and wish him all the best in this new role!

And we have another celebratory event: Helena recently won the Open & Reproducible Science prize of the Society for Social Neuroscience, in the category “human social neuroscience”. Helena employs state-of-the-art Open Science practices in her own research, including preregistration of fMRI studies and sharing code and data on the Open Science Framework. She is an active contributor to the field and promotes Open Science at many different levels, with the overarching aim of making open-access online resources available to the scientific community, especially early career researchers. Helena is also an editor at two important science outlets that promote Open Science: Collabra: Psychology and PCI Registered Reports. Among her many contributions, Helena has created and now curates a GitHub repository of helpful research tools and resources for scientists called “Awesome PhD” and is part of ARIADNE, a scientific navigator to help you through the resource jungle.

We excitedly congratulate Dr. med. Julian Kleine-Borgmann on passing his specialist examination! Julian studied medicine in Essen and has been successfully completing his specialist training here at the Department of Neurology since 2016. At the same time, he has been working scientifically in the Bingellab, focusing his research on the interaction of cognitive factors with the development and treatment of pain. During his specialist training, he also spent six months at Einstein College in New York City and at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Here he conducted research on migraine, among other topics. We are delighted to have such a dedicated colleague in our team and wish him every success in his future career – starting with the acquisition of the additional qualification “Special Pain Medicine”.

We warmly welcome Prof. Jonas Zaman (KU Leuven) as a guest researcher to the Bingellab! He has gained international recognition for his pioneering research on the interplay between fear and learning in the context of chronic pain. Through innovative experimental methods, his work has significantly contributed to reshaping our understanding of how acquired knowledge generalises to new contexts and how overgeneralisation can drive the development and maintenance of conditions like chronic pain or anxiety disorders. In his time with us, Professor Zaman will extend his investigations into fear and learning by characterising underlying brain mechanisms and exploring their broader implications for health and disease. Read more about his background and plans with us here (in German).

Ulrike Bingel wrote a German introductory article on “utilizing the power of expectations”. Promoting placebo effects and avoiding nocebo effects – this is useful and possible for almost every treatment. Every intervention, every medication taken, neurostimulation or physiotherapy is also subject to an expectation effect. It is important for therapists to know that they can support their patients through authentic and empathic communication. The example of placebo analgesia can be used to illustrate effects, mechanisms and communicative aspects can be shown particularly well. Find the book by Thieme publishers here.

Informed consent procedures and information about potential side effects of newly prescribed treatments present a classic dilemma. Although providing information about potential risks and side effects is necessary both from a medicolegal perspective and to maintain patient autonomy in a shared decision-making process, it can fuel patients’ worries and negative expectations. Ulrike Bingel and Katja Wiech discuss these topics in their comment, which you can read here.

Pain related learning alterations are a hallmark of chronic pain conditions. Balint, together with others, developed and externally validated a resting state connectivity signature of pain-related learning (RCPL). Connections of amygdala, posterior insula, sensorimotor, frontoparietal regions played the most important role. The model is robust and highly accessible for clinical and translational pain research. Read the preprint here. A joint effort of the collaborative research centers SFB/TRR 289 and 1280!

Our lab members Lea Busch and Elif Buse Caliskan had fun at the SFB 1280‘s “Brain Talks” event in Bochum last weekend. They determined visitors’ pain thresholds using electrical pain.

There are a few ways if you’re interested to come and work with us:

The countdown of this year‘s Max Planck School of Cognition application cycle has started. The application portal is now open for both, the Cognition Track and the Clinician Scientist Track. More information can be found here!

We also have another open PhD position here!