Implicit chemosensory threat signals as stimulators of amygdala hyperresponsiveness in AMD (A04)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry ; Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512007073

The project will make use of threat-related chemosensory stimuli, namely body odor, acquired during aggressive behavior (boxing) and unconsciously perceived, to investigate heightened amygdala responses to threat stimuli in aggressive patients. Body odors have the major advantage of being directly projected into the amygdala, circumventing cortical preprocessing, thereby enabling the differentiation of mechanisms between bottom-up altered limbic processing and top-down modulated altered cognitive evaluation. We investigate the potential of such body odors to bias responses to ambiguous visual social cues towards threat and their effects during peripersonal space (PPS) violation where they may be especially relevant.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 379: Neuropsychobiology of Aggression: A Transdiagnostic Approach in Mental Disorders
• Applicant Institution: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Natalya Chechko; Professorin Dr. Ute Habel