Malin Gingnell

Experimental Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience –Lab

ECAN

With a background in neuroimaging, one foot in psychology and the other in medicine, the research within our group focuses on various aspects of neural processing in relation to affective stimuli as well as during cognitive tasks, both in one individual at a time and simultaneously during social interaction. This involves both studying healthy participants and clinical cohorts, in the lab or in more natural settings, as well as performing various treatment studies. Our methods include fMRI, PET, EEG, fNIRS and psychophysiological measurements.

The interplay between emotions and ovarian steroid hormones has been in particular focus, such as how the changes in sex hormone levels during puberty interacts with levels of anxiety.

In addition to this, we look at how profound changes in physiology (such as during hypoglycemia or after a sudden decrease in blood flow), as well as more subtle manipulations (such as the intake of caffeine) affect affective symptoms and brain function. Another research trajectory includes the mechanisms underlying treatment effects, both regarding pharmaceutical treatments such as SSRI, but also applying brain stimulating techniques such as ECT and TMS as well as therapeutic interventions such as CBT. In relation to the later, we do in-depth studies of especially the learning process during extinction, using conditioning as a proxy for mechanisms activated during exposure therapy or fear learning. We also conducted studies that explore the mechanisms behind the placebo effect, both in more general terms and in relation to affective disorders and the neurobiological features of curiosity and grief.

Data collection is performed in collaboration with several research groups at Uppsala University as well as together with international groups. As an example, the group is part of RE-MEND and UPIC and collaborates with the research centers WOMHER, CIRCUS and CMH. The team members also coordinate activity in anxiety - an interdisciplinary research network.

Lab leaders:
Malin Gingnell & Andreas Frick

Post docs:

Johanna Mottilla-Hoppe

Johan Vegelius

Lykke Silfverbrand

PhD-students:
Magdalena Wlad
Ebba Widegren

Ashika Roy

Patricia Gil Paterna

Barry Karlsson

Carolina Knihs de Camargo

Carl Brandt

Sara Chergia

Kristina Stenström

Lab manager:

Hampus Berg

Lab assistants:

Vanessa Messinger

Felicia Pohl

Previously associated:
Matilda Frick, post doc (now at Stockholm University, Sweden)
Wiebke Struckmann, PhD (now at Stanford, USA)