| ESR 1 | |
| Project Title | Symptom perception as a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying FD |
| Host institution | Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz |
| Supervisor | Prof. Michael Witthöft |
| Required qualifications | Someone passionate about the mechanisms behind Functional Disorders (FD) and chronic somatic symptom distress in general. Suitable backgrounds are: psychology graduate, particularly with a background and interest in clinical psychology, psychophysiology, and experimental psychopathology research. |
| Duration | 36 months |
|
Objectives: The main goal of this project is to test whether alterations in the perception of signals originating within the body (i.e. interoception) and emotion regulation abnormalities are causally related to the experience of symptoms that are characteristic of functional disorders (FD). ESR1 will test interoception (e.g. interoceptive accuracy as measured with the heartbeat mental tracking tasks as well as signal detection tasks that are able to distinguish between sensitivity and response bias) and emotion regulation abilities and strategies (e.g. reappraisal, expressive suppression, regulatory choice) in persons at risk for the development of FD (i.e. persons suffering from chronic somatic symptoms) compared to healthy control participants. Identified alterations in interoception and emotion regulation will be actively manipulated in patients with FD using training protocols in order to prove their causal role in triggering and amplifying somatic symptoms. |
|
|
Expected Results:
|
|
|
Planned secondments and research visits:
|
|