Böker Bösiger

Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik » Affektive Erkrankungen und Allgemeinpsychiatrie Zürich Ost, Klinik für » Prof. Dr. Erich Seifritz » Böker Bösiger

Completed research project

Title / Titel	The modulation of fear and empathy processing by oxytocin - An fMRI study in major depressive disorder
PDF	Abstract (PDF, 14 KB)
Summary / Zusammenfassung	The study aims at investigating top-down and bottom-up regulation mechanisms related to empathic processes and the effect of a single dose of oxytocin on fear and fear-related empathy in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), amygdala and prefrontal activation by fear and fear-related empathy inducing visual stimuli shall be investigated in healthy and depressed males after double-blind crossover intranasal application of placebo or oxytocin. The following hypotheses shall be investigated: 1.Stimuli, which induce fear-related empathy, are associated with signal changes in the fear-circuit. 2.Additionally to signal changes in the fear- circuit, stimuli which induce fear- related empathy are also associated with neural activity in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). 3.Patients with Major Depression show more signal changes in the fear-circuit in response to fear-related stimuli and less signal changes in prefrontal cortex in response to empathy-related stimuli. 4.The severity of depressive symptoms correlates with stronger signal changes in the fear-circuit in response to fearful stimuli and less signal changes in prefronal cortex in response to empathy- related stimuli.
Keywords / Suchbegriffe	Empathy, top-down and bottom-up regulation, major depressive disorder (MDD), fMRI, oxytocin
Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte	Prof. Dr. med. Heinz Böker (Project Leader) heinz.boeker@bli.uzh.ch Prof. Dr. Peter Bösiger (Project Leader)   Dr. rer. nat. Simone Grimm simone.grimm@bli.uzh.ch Dr. med. André Richter andre.richter@puk.zh.ch
Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch	Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career), Others
In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit	Dr. Anke Henning (Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich) Switzerland
Duration of Project / Projektdauer	Sep 2008 to Dec 2011