News

The lecture "No Pain, No Gain – How Pain Influences Our Behaviour and Experience", given by Prof. Susanne Becker on 6 November as part of the Heinrich Heine University's Citizens' University programme, is now available on popular streaming platforms and as a podcast on DLF. The lecture is only available in german language. 

This month, two new publications by members of the department were released: 

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker and in collaboration with Dr. Martin Löffler, the influences of operant conditioning on emotional-motivational and sensory-discriminative responses to pain were investigated. In a pain avoidance and temperature differentiation task, a selective reinforcement of pain avoidance was observed. Click here to get to the study.

Another study was published under the direction of Dr Martin Löffer. In a reward-dependent learning process, predictive correlations between neural and psychosocial markers for the comorbidity of pain and affective symptoms were investigated. You can find more information here.

Prof. Susanne Becker gave a lecture for the Citizens' University of Heinrich Heine University on 6 November. In the event entitled "No Pain, No Gain – How Pain Influences Our Behaviour and Experience", she spoke, among other things, about what pain actually is, how we research it and what ways there are of dealing with different forms of pain. 

Two days later, on November 8, Dr. Martin Löffler delivered an invited lecture at the Autumn School of Translational Neuroscience in Würzburg entitled “A learning perspective on the development and treatment of primary chronic pain”. In his presentation, he highlighted learning mechanisms as a key framework for understanding the development and treatment of chronic pain.

The department has grown!

We warmly welcome Dr Katrin Lübke, who has joined us from the Department of Biological Psychology and Social Psychology. She will continue in her roles as minor subject coordinator and Studium Universale coordinator. 
In addition, MSc Lea Pries has joined our team as a new research assistant.
We also welcome Marit Müller-Michaels as a new student and research assistant. 

Prof. Dr. Susanne participated as a speaker at the pain traning conference held by the Pain Centre at St. Vinzenz Hospital in Düsseldorf. She lectured about motivational processing and chronic pain.

We are delighted to announce two new publications!

One publication, published in the Journal of International Pain Research Pain, was jointly authored by our staff. It deals with the connection between positive reinforcement and the ability to distinguish between different intensities of pain stimuli. Click here to read the article.

In addition, Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker participated in a project researching motivational anhedonia in chronic pain patients. The study showed that patients with chronic back pain are less likely to make an effort to receive a reward than a healthy control group. The effect could not be explained by depressive symptoms, but correlates directly with pain. Read more.
 

Exciting news from our department!

A new position paper has been published in the European Journal of Pain, outlining research strategies to efficiently and meaningfully prioritize key areas in pain research. These focus areas provide valuable guidance for researchers, helping the international community work together toward shared goals.

Read the full publication here.

This month, we could welcome a new member to our scientific staff: Ceyda Sabah.  

Glad to have you as part of our team, Ceyda!

Jamie Wagner started as a research assistant in our department. A warm welcome!

This month we would like to congratulate Lisa and Benjamin! Both passed their state exams to practice as a psychological psychotherapist at the end of August and are now officially licensed psychological psychotherapists after receiving their certificates! With Dr. Simon Desch, we now have three psychological psychotherapists in our department.

With great pleasure we would like to announce that we now have another postdoc in our department!  This time, however, not new at HHU or new in our research group, but by completing his PhD.  We warmly congratulate Dr. Simon Desch on completing his doctorate and also on his license to practice as a psychological psychotherapist!

On October 19, Dr. Martin Löffler was awarded first prize in the "Clinical Research" category of the 2023 Pain Research Award at the German Pain Congress for his work "Corticostriatal circuits in the transition to chronic back pain: The predictive role of reward learning"!

With the new month, two new employees have started working for us. A warm welcome to our new research staff member Benjamin and to our student assistant Giulia!

As of the 19th of this month, a new student assistant has joined our team. Welcome, Lara!

"Two sides of the same coin? How the intersections of pain and reward affect perception and behavior in healthy state and in disease" - On June 28, 2023, Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker gave one of the keynote lectures at the 21st World Congress of Psychophysiology in Geneva. In her talk, she addressed the psychobiological mechanisms of pain and reward, and how they modulate not only our behavior but also our perception. There was a particular focus on the intersection of mechanisms, as well as the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine, neural correlates, and changes in disease states. More information about the congress and the keynote lecture can be found here.

A new member joined our scientific staff! A warm welcome to Dr. Martin Löffler!

The current episode of the HHU podcast "Zuckerschoten" is about pain! Together with other professors, Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker has examined the topic from different fields of expertise. What is the difference between chronic and acute pain? Can we alleviate all pain today? Can we treat ourselves to a really nice vacation from the pain compensation money? And how is pain depicted in medieval art? To find out the answer to these questions, listen to the podcast here or on Spotify.

In a recent publication in the journal eLife, Simon Desch and colleagues investigated the modulation of pain relief and corresponding neurochemical basis. They used a probabilistic pain relief task that either actively or passively induces a reduction of a tonic thermal pain stimulus. To explore the neurochemical bases, this task was embedded in a double-blind crossover design. To find out which factors modulate pain relief, as well as which neurotransmitters play a role in this process, click here.

Although not new to HHU, but still new to our department, Dr. Friederike Barthels joined us! Welcome to our research group, Friederike!

And another research assistant has joined our group! Welcome, Nora!

Another new employee: As of today, 12/05/22 Christine Beuer has joined our department as a secretary. Welcome, Christine!

Samuel Mertens started as a research assistant in our department. A warm welcome!

New publication in Pain: In her newest publication, Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker and colleagues have investigated the neural and behavioral correlates of pain avoidance in humans with and without episodic migraine. To find out how this manifests itself, click here.

New publication in The Journal of Pain: In a cross-sectional study, Prof. Dr. Susanne Becker and colleagues assessed the prevalence of phantom limb pain and non-painful phantom phenomena in persons with limb amputation. To access the publication, click here.