Investigation of socio-affective and socio-cognitive mechanisms in the processing of witnessed traumatic events

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Philipp Kanske; Professor Dr. Sebastian Trautmann
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468400170

Witnessed traumatic events such as witnessed interpersonal violence, life-threatening accidents and terrorist attacks are among the most prevalent types of traumatic experiences and can cause immense individual and societal burden. However, little is known why individuals can develop adverse reactions and psychological symptoms to experiences that have actually happened to another person. Based on existing theoretical models and empirical findings in social neuroscience, it can be assumed that perspective-taking and empathic responding are initial processing steps, followed by diverging socio-affective and -cognitive functions such as compassion, empathic concern, empathic distress and guilt, which can be associated with either negative or positive affective and mental health outcomes. Conforming different socio-affective and -cognitive pathways, their dissection on the neural level and the identification of biological and psychological factors that contribute to these different pathways could improve the prediction of adverse reactions to witnessed trauma and reveal valuable targets for early interventions. The study aims to examine socio-affective and -cognitive mechanisms in the processing of an acute, witnessed traumatic event using a laboratory design. The main research questions are as follows: (1) Do self- and other-related socio-affective states (e.g. empathic distress, compassion) as assessed on a physiological, behavioral and neural level predict subsequent symptom development (intrusions) following exposure to an acute laboratory witnessed traumatic event? (2) Does empathy combined with (a) liability to hyperarousal and (b) liability to negative thinking processes predict the occurrence of other- vs self-related states and symptom development? To answer these questions, healthy individuals will be exposed to an analogue witnessed trauma using an established trauma film paradigm. Immediate subjective and biological stress reactivity as well as the development of symptoms in the subsequent week will be assessed. The study will be conducted at two study sites with similar study designs except that the used paradigms are adapted for the application inside an MRI scanner at one site to be able to additionally assess socio-affective and -cognitive processes on a neural level.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: New Zealand
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Michael Höfler; Professor Dr. Markus Mühlhan
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Hedwig Eisenbarth