Can we boost hippocampal activity just by thinking the right thoughts? ​Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social , we show that contingent feedback helps refine & guide effective mental strategies 📈 ​Congrats to @s-vandelangenberg.bsky.social, @guygu44.bsky.social & team! ​📃 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

We are delighted to share that Lars was awarded the 2026 Dirk Hellhammer Award in Erlangen last Saturday. ​Our sincere thanks to @ispne.bsky.social for this recognition, and to all the incredible team members & collaborators who have contributed to this research! 🙏🏼 ​🔗 ispne.net/dirk-hellhammer-award

Big congratulations to Dr. Kai Schüren on completing his PhD! 🎓🧠 ​His thesis, "The missing link," explores associative inference and memory integration, uncovering how determinants like stress & emotion shape how our brains connect overlapping memories to learn and adapt. ​So proud of you, Kai! 🥂✨

Not all stress-related memories are created equal. In his 2026 Dirk Hellhammer Award piece in Psychoneuroendocrinology, Lars Schwabe argues that prediction errors (how unexpected an event is) determine which elements of a stressful episode get prioritized for storage, beyond arousal alone 📖👇

How does stress change how we judge others' moral character? In our newly published paper led by @sschulreich.bsky.social, we combined the TSST, computational modeling, and moral tasks to show that stress selectively increases belief uncertainty for good agents, tracking directly with cortisol.

Moral inference under stress: When we doubt our beliefs about good people

Stress shapes how we perceive and interpret the world and may also influence how we evaluate other people. Do we learn differently about others’ moral…

sciencedirect.com

Dr. Stefan Schulreich@sschulreich.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New paper on how #stress affects #moral inference. Beliefs about „bad people“ are typically more volatile, but acute stress transiently increased belief #volatility for good people - an effect correlated with cortisol reactivity. #BayesianModeling #BeliefUpdating doi.org/10.1016/j.ps...

We are very happy to support this important initiative by one of our former research assistants, Veronika Zöbelin, and can't wait to see the results ♀️🧠

Universität Hamburg@uni-hamburg.de · 4mo ago

Wie wirkt der Zyklus auf das Stresslevel? Hierzu gibt es kaum Studien, weil die Forschung weibliche Perspektiven bisher kaum betrachtet hat. Nun untersuchen die Psychologie-Studentinnen Veronika Zöbelin und Lara Kubotsch das Thema in einer studentischen Forschungsgruppe.

Grattis Dr. Lilja! We are very proud of our newest PhD graduate, Antonia, who successfully defended her thesis, "What Matters Most: Selective Memory Enhancement Surrounding Acute Stress". We're happy to celebrate this milestone & wish her all the best in her next chapter 🥳🍾☀️

How does an intense event change what we remember about the rest of our day? ​Our recent study (N=285) challenges the idea of a uniform emotional memory boost. We found that individuals split into two distinct modes of organizing threat-relevant information.🧵 link.springer.com/article/10.3...

Divergent modes of episodic organization underlie whether emotional learning enhances memory across event boundaries - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Episodic memory organizes continuous experience into discrete events, often limiting integration across temporal gaps. Emotionally salient experiences, such as learning about threats, may nevertheless...

link.springer.com

Time for the yearly "summer" team activity: swapped boats for bowling to escape the rain. Some colleagues clearly improved since last time 🧐🎳 Others had beginner's luck?

💥 Limited connections An international research team led by Bernstein member Lars Schwabe @stresscognition.bsky.social shows how stress affects information-linking processes in our brain. Read the whole story 👉️ bit.ly/4vxEKDW @uni-hamburg.de #BernsteinNetwork #CompNeuro 🧠 📈

Heading to #PuG2026 in Heidelberg! ​Catch Hendrik's talk in the Saturday session at 11:00 (HS14) exploring how post-retrieval stress disrupts memory updating. Or check out the thread below for our poster lineup (#229, #369, #574)! 👇 (1/3) @dgps.bsky.social

🧠 Neue Informationen gleicht das Gehirn mit Erinnerungen ab und verknüpft sie miteinander. Ein Forschungsteam unter der Leitung von Prof. Lars Schwabe aus dem Arbeitsbereich Kognitionspsychologie (@stresscognition.bsky.social) zeigt nun, dass diese Prozesse durch Stress negativ beeinflusst werden.

Eingeschränkte Schlussfolgerungen: Wie Stress unser Gehirn beeinflusst

uni-hamburg.de

When you're stressed, what happens to the mental links that let you connect related experiences and draw new conclusions? In our new @science.org #ScienceAdvances paper, we show that stress disrupts that linking process in the hippocampus🧵

Does the brain perform inference under pressure? Our fMRI study led by Kai Schueren shows acute stress impairs our ability to link memories of past events with new information.🔗 The work is out now in www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... and also covered in www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Our lab is eager to host a post-doc researcher via the Humboldt Research Fellowship! ​If you’re interested in collaborating and applying together, please reach out to us directly: lars.schwabe@uni-hamburg.de ​Details: www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/spo...

Humboldt Research Fellowship

Through the Humboldt Research Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation sponsors researchers with above-average qualifications from across the globe.

humboldt-foundation.de

​Exam stress? 📉 ​Prof. Lars Schwabe shares his top tips for staying calm in under a minute. ​📺 Watch here (German): www.instagram.com/reel/DUX21-N...

Universität Hamburg on Instagram: "Blackout in der Klausur! Und dann? 😵‍💫 Prof. Lars Schwabe leitet das Team der Kognitionspsychologie an der Uni Hamburg. Er empfiehlt: Fokus auf den Atem – und einen...

171 likes, 0 comments - unihamburg on February 5, 2026: "Blackout in der Klausur! Und dann? 😵‍💫 Prof. Lars Schwabe leitet das Team der Kognitionspsychologie an der Uni Hamburg. Er empfiehlt: Fokus auf...

instagram.com

Inspiring days in Ratzeburg 🌿✨ at the 3rd Summer School of @rtg2753.bsky.social on Emotional Learning & Memory. Science, sports, spa – and great talks from our lab on past & future projects! 🧠💡 With @elbersgerd.bsky.social, Kai Schüren, Tim Dressler, @s-vandelangenberg.bsky.social & Antonia Lilja

GOAT times in the lab 🐐🍻 Excited to (re)welcome Tim Dreßler as a new PhD student, and belated cheers to @elbersgerd.bsky.social & Dr. Leon Lange, who joined our department earlier this summer 🌞

Grateful for some intense days at #ICON25 in Porto and energised from the people I (re)connected with — so much input, inspiring discussions, and the chance to share my work on hippocampal neurofeedback 🧠 Now moving from brainwaves to ocean waves: recharging with workouts & the sea 🏄🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️🏃🏼‍♀️

New publication from our lab! 👀 We found that memory enhancement from PEs depends on the brain's neural state: theta/alpha activity & pre-error reactivation are key. TMS over the superior parietal cortex altered response bias but not PE-related memory effects 💡 👉 www.jneurosci.org/content/45/3...

Prediction Error-Related Memory Enhancement Depends on the Neural State Surrounding the Prediction Error Event

Prediction errors (PEs) can enhance memory for preceding events. While such PE-related memory enhancements are critical for understanding adaptive memory, their underlying mechanisms are not fully und...

jneurosci.org

Hats off to Dr. Kaja Loock, who successfully defended her PhD on July 11th! 🎓👏🏼 Her thesis, "Learning from the Unexpected: How Prediction Errors Shape Episodic Memory Formation," sheds new light on how surprises shape what we remember. 🧠💡 Congrats on this outstanding achievement! 🌟

🔥 Biannual Team Fun Alert We took a break from the brain stuff & soaked up some sunshine! ☀️ We got competitive over mini-golf ⛳ and kubb 🪵 (aka Viking Chess), relaxed with a cozy picnic in Planten un Blomen 🌸 and shared too much pizza & laughter 🍕😂 We’re now on Insta too, come follow along 👇🏼

📢 On July 1st, our new postdoc Dr. Leon Lange & our new PhD student Neele @elbersgerd.bsky.social (as part of the @rtg2753.bsky.social) joined the lab - a very warm welcome to both! 😍

Today, our postdoc Hendrik Heinbockel received the Best PhD Thesis Award at the Summer Event of the Hamburg Brain School /Center for NeuroScience. Congratulations! ☀️💐👏🏼 #HamburgNeuro #HBS #HCNS

Exciting news from the 14th Germany-wide PhD Thesis Award of @dgps.bsky.social (General Psychology) 🌟 Our postdoc Sarah Koch was awarded 3rd place for her outstanding dissertation, presented at the final symposium in Cologne 🎉👏 Huge congratulations to Sarah and all other finalists!

Our new paper is out! Valentina Krenz et al show that the amygdala response during the initial encounter of an emotional event boosts subsequent remembering through a more precise reinstatement of the event representation during subsequent encounters 💡 www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

Excited to have welcomed our new PhD student to the lab! 🧠 Good luck with your research journey, @ivanamarijanovic.bsky.social ! 🍀 www.psy.uni-hamburg.de/arbeitsberei...

🔥New paper by Kaja Loock! In a series of experiments, Kaja, F. Kalbe & L. Schwabe investigated whether PE effects are specific to the predictive stimuli that precede PEs, or if PEs create a temporary period of enhanced, non-selective memory formation. The results? 👇 psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Great talents looking for #NeuroJobs or #PsychJobs in your network? 🧠🌐 Please share our vacancies! 📝 Deadline March 5th

Stress & Cognition Group@stresscognition.bsky.social · 2y ago

We're announcing new openings in our research team! Join us at @uni-hamburg.de and be a part of fascinating work on stress and cognition: 🔹 Post-doc: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb... 🔹 PhD student: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb... We’re excited to welcome new talent 🌟 #NeuroJobs #PsychJobs

We're announcing new openings in our research team! Join us at @uni-hamburg.de and be a part of fascinating work on stress and cognition: 🔹 Post-doc: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb... 🔹 PhD student: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb... We’re excited to welcome new talent 🌟 #NeuroJobs #PsychJobs

Ausschreibung

uni-hamburg.de