Theses

All Master projects can also be offered as Bachelor projects in a shortened form. Please talk to the respective project supervisors.

Rats, like many social species, rely on information acquired from their peers to guide decision-making. Their food choices are shaped not only by individual experience but also by observing the feeding behaviors of conspecifics. The socially transmitted food preference (STFP) paradigm brings this naturalistic form of social learning into the laboratory, offering a powerful model to investigate how social information can overwrite innate preferences. In the STFP paradigm, observer rats initially display a preference between two palatable food options. After social interaction with demonstrator rats, who have consumed the non-preferred food, observers often shift their consumption toward that food, effectively overwriting their original preference. However, considerable behavioral variability exists in how consistently this social influence manifests.

An important and timely question arises: To what extent can repeated social interactions with a demonstrator reduce behavioral variance and foster a more uniform adoption of new food preferences?

We offer thesis projects that explore the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms underlying social learning and behavioral flexibility in the STFP paradigm:

• To what extend does repeated social interaction with a demonstrate change socially transmitted food preferences?
• Targeted Serotonergic Lesions in the Basolateral Amygdala (BLA):
• Investigate how selective depletion of serotonin within the BLA affects the social transmission and stability of food preferences.
• Pharmacological Manipulation with Fluoxetine (SSRI): examine the impact of fluoxetine treatment on the acquisition and consistency of socially transmitted food preferences, with a focus on serotonergic modulation.

By integrating behavioral paradigms with neurobiological and pharmacological approaches, these projects aim to elucidate the role of serotonergic systems in social learning and the adaptability of food choices in rats.

Importantly, these projects are based on comprehensive existing datasets, with all animal handling and behavioral training already completed. As part of your thesis, you will engage in detailed video analysis of social interactions and behavior captured during the experimental sessions.

For further information or to discuss project details, please contact us.

Supervisor: Sandra Schäble

Language: German or English

Teamwork: possible

How much effort are people willing to invest to help (or harm) others? This line of research explores how effort influences prosocial and antisocial decisions. Unlike standard monetary decision-making tasks, effort-based paradigms may better reflect real-world social behavior. Projects in this area may involve validating or adapting existing tasks, such as social discounting or intergroup prisoner’s dilemma tasks, to include effort components.

Supervisor: Luca Marie Lüpken

Language: English or German

Teamwork: possible

This project involves developing and testing an fMRI-compatible version of the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma–Maximizing Difference (IPD-MD) task. This task evaluates the individual tendency to engage in ingroup support or outgroup competition. These pilot studies are an important step toward enabling neuroimaging research on complex group-based social decisions under controlled experimental conditions.

Supervisor: Luca Marie Lüpken

Language: English or German

Teamwork: possible

How does stress influence the way we make decisions or process emotions? In two experimental studies using pharmacological manipulations, we investigated how neuromodulators such as cortisol and noradrenaline affect individual and group-based social decision-making – ranging from economic and moral choices to social discounting. We also explored effects on affect misattribution and implicit social biases. Thesis projects in this area will focus on analyzing existing data to uncover the behavioral effects of stress neuromodulators.

Supervisor: Luca Marie Lüpken

Language: English or German

Teamwork: possible

How do we value rewards and punishments that happen in the future? Research shows that both animals and humans tend to "discount" future events, meaning we care less about them the further away they are in time. A study in rats found that the timing of a punishment and a reward affects decision-making: rats were less likely to choose a reward if it was closely preceded by a punishment.

To study this in humans, we will adapt the experiment by using unpleasant sounds as punishment (instead of painful shocks) and orange juice as a reward. This will help us explore how people weigh future positive and negative outcomes—an important question for understanding self-control and motivation.

Supervisor: Maurice Zech

Language: English or German

Teamwork: possible

Our research group investigates the cognitive neurobiology of decision-making in humans and non-human animals. We aim to understand under which conditions decisions align with the ideal of optimal choice, and why they often systematically deviate from it.

Within the scope of our diverse research interests, Bachelor students are invited to develop a literature-based thesis. This offers an opportunity to critically examine a specific question and explore theoretical perspectives that illuminate the complexity of decision-making across different contexts, grounded in current scientific literature.

Before beginning the literature review, each student is required to give an oral presentation of their thesis exposé to the team. This presentation should outline the central research question, the planned structure of the thesis, and its intended direction.

The specific topic and research question will be developed in consultation with the thesis supervisor.

Supervisor: Luca Marie Lüpken, José Michele Dören