New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Janna Teigeler, Yannik Stegmann and Matthias Gamer: Acting upon threat: Electrocortical, autonomic, and oculomotor responses in anticipation of avoidable and inevitable threats doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

🚨 New paper from @jannateigeler.bsky.social with @yannikstegmann.bsky.social on freezing responses in humans 👇

Imaging Neuroscience@imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 7d ago

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Janna Teigeler, Yannik Stegmann and Matthias Gamer: Acting upon threat: Electrocortical, autonomic, and oculomotor responses in anticipation of avoidable and inevitable threats doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

#PuG2026 was a fantastic conference! Now you can already safely the date for #PuG2027 in Oldenburg: 6-8 May, 2027! 🧠

#PuG2026 is around the corner! Hope to see you Friday, 2pm at our symposium "Before You Know It: Early Visual Processing of Socio-Emotional Cues", chaired by @eweidner1.bsky.social and me, with talks by @yannikstegmann.bsky.social and Nick Zuppa 🧠⏩😱

Interested in fear conditioning and declarative memory? In our newest article we found that higher anxiety sensitivity was associated with increased P300 and LPP amplitudes, but not enhanced memory performance. doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Attentional processing in individual anxiety: Electrocortical correlates of threat- and safety-related declarative memory formation - Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

The ability to accurately detect and remember threatening stimuli is essential for adaptive behavior in potentially dangerous environments. While threat-related defensive processes are increasingly well understood, recent research has begun to emphasize complementary safety-related attention and learning mechanisms, processes especially relevant to the development and maintenance of pathological anxiety. Prior fear conditioning studies have identified a key role for late positive event-related potentials, particularly the P300 and late positive potential (LPP) in the formation of declarative memories related to threat and safety. However, the influence of individual differences in anxiety on these mechanisms remains insufficiently explored. In the present study, we examined how anxiety sensitivity, a transdiagnostic risk factor for anxiety-related pathologies, modulates attention and memory processes during declarative threat and safety learning. Using a subsequent memory paradigm, we recorded event-related potentials as participants learned associations between neutral faces and either an aversive outcome or safety. Stronger P300 and LPP amplitudes were found for remembered compared with forgotten items. Crucially, elevated anxiety sensitivity was associated with increased P300 and LPP amplitudes at the onset of both threat and safety cues, indicating heightened attentional allocation to both types of stimuli. Despite these amplified neural responses during memory encoding, higher anxiety sensitivity did not correspond to enhanced memory performance. These results suggest that, while individuals at heightened risk for anxiety-related psychopathology exhibit generalized hypervigilance, this increased attentional engagement does not necessarily translate into enhanced memory formation during intentional learning.

doi.org

New preprint! We show that avoidable threats induce attentive immobility, i.e. alpha suppression, bradycardia, pupil dilation, and centralized gaze, that enhances perception. Memory encoding, however, relies on separate electrocortical and physiological responses. osf.io/preprints/ps...

At #2025SPR, @yannikstegmann.bsky.social’s insightful talk on attentive immobility shared that heightened arousal and increased alpha suppression when anticipating threat avoidance only benefit the motor response but not memory encoding. @therealspr.bsky.social

We're further expanding our team!💼 An Akademische Rätin/Akademischer Rat (A13) position is now open in our group - check out the details below and feel free to share!🙌 #ClinicalPsychology #JobOpening

Exciting news! Our latest paper is now published 🎉 We dive into the fear generalization literature to see how individual fear gen profiles are typically quantified, extracted the most commonly used measures, and compared them using simulated and empirical data: doi.org/10.1016/j.bp...

Psychometric Considerations in Assessing Fear Generalization as a Predictor of Anxiety

The ability to adaptively transfer acquired fear to novel situations is fundamental for survival in ever-changing environments and may contribute to t…

sciencedirect.com

Our oscillations consensus paper is finally out as a preprint 🤩 thanks to everyone involved arxiv.org/abs/2507.15639

Brain rhythms in cognition -- controversies and future directions

Brain rhythms seem central to understanding the neurophysiological basis of human cognition. Yet, despite significant advances, key questions remain unresolved. In this comprehensive position paper, w...

arxiv.org

SCONe - Scottish-EU Critical Oscillations Network@scone-neuro.bsky.social · last yr.

/1 We took our sweet time (~3yrs) to put this into its final shape - but happy to say that the pre-print of an extensive review of brain rhythms in cognition - from a cognruro perspective - is now available. Please let us know what you think. #neuroskyence doi.org/10.48550/arX...

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Yannik Stegmann and Matthias Gamer: The impact of inherently aversive contexts on visuocortical processing of generalized threat doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

📢 New Preprint: Acting upon Threat osf.io/r8a5n Together with @yannikstegmann.bsky.social & @gamerlab.bsky.social, we used EEG, eye-tracking, and autonomic data to disentangle threat intensity ⚡️ from action possibility 🏃‍♂️ in states of attentive immobility.

🚨Our latest paper is now out in @imagingneurosci.bsky.social: We show how aversive generalization and contexts interact at electrocortical levels, demonstrating modulations of cues and contexts into different frequencies of the ssVEP. With @gamerlab.bsky.social! Check it out: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

The impact of inherently aversive contexts on visuocortical processing of generalized threat

Abstract. Adapting behavior to environmental demands is a fundamental aspect of survival. In the face of unfamiliar potential dangers, organisms display a wide range of defensive mechanisms, such as u...

doi.org

🎉 Exciting news! Our Stage 1 Registered Report on the Coherence of Gamma-Band EEG Activity as a Basis for Associative Threat Learning has been accepted at Nature Human Behaviour! You can read the uploaded protocol here: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f... Stay tuned for Stage 2! 🧠

@yannikstegmann.bsky.social receiving the early career award of the German Society of Psychophysiology and its Application. Very well deserved. Congrats!!! #pug2025

It was a blast! Thanks to all the contributors of the symposium and to everyone who attended!

Gamer Lab Wuerzburg@gamerlab.bsky.social · last yr.

Now on stage @yannikstegmann.bsky.social presenting his work on contextual influences on threat processing #pug2025

The #PuG2025 is happening in Würzburg ~this week~ and we cannot wait to see you all in person! 🧠 @pug2025.bsky.social Today and tomorrow, two early career scholar workshops are taking place ⬇️

📢 We’re seeking a PhD candidate for an exciting project exploring maladaptive fear avoidance in anxiety-related disorders, combining experimental lab tasks and EMA! Apply by 16th May! 👉 lnkd.in/eyPR5uSQ @essb-erasmusuni010.bsky.social @erasmusuniversity.bsky.social #phd #anxiety #EMA #conditioning

Our article with @gamerlab.bsky.social and @jannateigeler.bsky.social has now been published Open Access 🔓 in Behaviour Research and Therapy🥳 doi.org/10.1016/j.br...

Mario Reutter-Dieker@mreutter.bsky.social · 2y ago

🚨 Preprint Alert🚨 doi.org/10.31234/osf... Fear generalization😱 depends on attention 👀towards diagnostic stimulus aspects🧐 - now replicated in a sample with diverse levels of social anxiety🧑‍🤝‍🧑(N = 87). Implications for therapy🛋️! Thx to @gamerlab.bsky.social and @jannateigeler.bsky.social !

🚨 PhD position (65%, 3 years) 🚨 We are currently looking for a PhD candidate within the @rtg2660.bsky.social on the neural mechanisms of approach and avoidance behavior. Please share widely and feel free to reach out if you have any questions! www.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/06...

💡 New preprint! osf.io/preprints/ps... We conducted a threat generalization task within aversive vs neutral contexts while recording EEG. Next to enhanced pupil response in the aversive vs. neutral contexts, we found that distinct harmonics of the ssVEP frequency index cue vs. context responses 👀🧠

📣 New paper alert! Together with @jannateigeler.bsky.social, Arash Mirifar, @akeil1927.bsky.social, and @gamerlab.bsky.social we looked at correlates of attentive immobility during the anticipation of avoidable vs unavoidable threats in two samples from Germany and the US. doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...

Electrocortical Responses in Anticipation of Avoidable and Inevitable Threats: A Multisite Study

When faced with danger, human beings respond with a repertoire of defensive behaviors, including freezing and active avoidance. Previous research has revealed a pattern of physiological responses, cha...

doi.org

@yannikstegmann.bsky.social giving a great presentation (🐍👀) on their study using flickering video stimuli to track neural activity during threat detection, showing how anxious contexts alter visuocortical engagement. @therealspr.bsky.social #2024SPR

Now on stage: @yannikstegmann.bsky.social talking about sustained attention during contextual threat

📣 New Preprint 📣 @yannikstegmann.bsky.social, @gamerlab.bsky.social and I investigated the robustness of the Social Attention Bias 👀 We explored whether humans can suppress directing their attention towards social stimuli when this is associated with an aversive outcome 👉 osf.io/preprints/os...

👀New paper alert: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Robust effects of inherently aversive contexts on psychophysiological correlates of defense behavior! With Judith Paulus, @mwieser.bsky.social and @gamerlab.bsky.social. Out now in @therealspr.bsky.social!

<em>Psychophysiology</em> | SPR Journal | Wiley Online Library

Recent research challenges the idea that defensive states induced by potential and acute threat are mutually exclusive. In this study, we observed enhanced defensive responses to acute threat stimuli....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Preprint-alert: osf.io/preprints/ps... Aversive contexts enhance psychophys responses to conditioned threat cues. A summary of two experiments and some interesting findings! Together with Judith Paulus, @mwieser.bsky.social, and @gamerlab.bsky.social