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“OCD and the Brain” Hub Now Available in German

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The knowledge hub “OCD and the Brain,” developed by researchers, charities, and lived experience experts to inform the public about the lesser-known brain effects of OCD, has expanded to the German-speaking world. Professor Tobias Hauser and his team identified a significant lack of resources in German-speaking countries and addressed this gap with the support of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. Thanks to their backing, a German website has been launched, reaching a wide audience. The initiative has also garnered media attention, with coverage by the German news channel SWR (read here), the German newspaper Schwäbisches Tagblatt (read here), the German health portal (read here) and the German Center for Mental Health “DZPG” (read the German article here, or the English version here). We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the lived experience experts, clinicians, and the Carl Zeiss Stiftung for their invaluable contributions to the German translation of our website. Your support has enabled us to reach a wider audience and inform the public about OCD and its associated brain correlates! Visit the website here: https://ocdandthebrain.com/de

Professor Tobias Hauser Awarded FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize 2024

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We are proud to announce that Professor Tobias Hauser has been honored with the prestigious FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize for 2024. This esteemed award, presented by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN), recognizes outstanding contributions to neuroscience research by early-career scientists. This accolade is a testament to Professor Hauser’s hard work and the impactful research conducted within the Developmental Computational Psychiatry lab. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to him for this well-deserved recognition and look forward to his continued contributions to the field of neuroscience!

Q&A with Lead Researcher Tobias Hauser Featured on Nature Mental Health

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We are thrilled to announce that a compelling Q&A session with Tobias Hauser, head of the Developmental Computational Psychiatry lab, has been published on the Nature Mental Health website. In this exclusive interview, Tobias delves into his groundbreaking research in the advancing field of Computational Psychiatry and discusses innovative approaches to understanding and addressing mental health challenges. To read the full Q&A with Tobias Hauser, please visit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-024-00231-3

FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize

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Tobias Hauser has won the 2024 FENS EJN Young Investigator Prize, together with Sara Bizzotto. He will present receive the Prize and present his work at the 2024 FENS Forum in Vienna. Hoping to see you all there! More info on the prize: https://www.fens.org/news-activities/news/meet-the-laureates-of-the-2024-fens-ejn-awards

Tobias awarded Philip Leverhulme Prize

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It’s our pleasure to announce that Tobias has been awarded a prestigious 2021 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Psychology in recognition of his fascinating work in decision making. He is planning to use this award to undertake novel research to understand spontaneous brain fluctuations and their impact on decision making. Read more here.

Flux workshop on computational modelling (17/09/2021)

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In collaboaration with the Harley Lab we are giving a workshop on computational modelling in development. The workshop provides an introduction and overview about what computational modelling is, how it can help developmental cognitive neuroscience research, and what are the good practices. It is targeted at researchers with little prior experience in computational modelling, using many examples and hands-on tutorials to provide an intuitive understanding of computational modelling. More information on: https://devcompsy.org/flux2021workshop/ If this sounds interesting and you’d like to understand computational modelling better, sign-up via the general FLUX virtual conference registration: https://fluxsociety.org/registration/

Reliability of web-based affective sounds

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Conducting research experiments on web-based platforms have become common in recent years but some designs, especially tasks that involve sounds, have been slow in their online adaptation because of concerns of data quality. In our latest paper, we leveraged recent methods to increase sound presentation quality and tested the reliability of a selected array of commonly used emotional sound stimuli to evoke valence and arousal states online. We found good inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities, with results comparable to in-lab studies which demonstrate that affective sounds can be robustly utilized on web-based platforms. We hope that this will help enable the adaptation and development of new auditory paradigms for online experiments. More information can be found here:Seow TXF & Hauser TU (2021). Reliability of web-based affective auditory stimulus presentation. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01643-0

Tobias named a FENS-Kavli Scholar for 2021

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It is our great pleasure to announce that Tobias has been named a FENS-Kavli Scholar for 2021. He will be joining a network of 30 Early- and Mid-career neuroscientists from 13 different countries to work together and shape the future of Neuroscience in Europe through scientific exchange, advocacy and outreach.

Article on teenage mental health in The Conversation

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Last month, Tobias discussed in The Conversation how changes in the brain may explain why many mental health problems arise during adolescence.  Have a read yourself and find out more about what brain changes happen during adolescents and how they can affect our mental health: https://theconversation.com/teenage-mental-health-how-growing-brains-could-explain-emerging-disorders-154007

Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice

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Adolescents aspire for independence and are often accused of not following the advice of others. Here, we investigated metacognitive development and advice taking across childhood and adolescence. To do this, we created a new space-themed game where participants made simple decisions about the numbers of, for example blue versus yellow, aliens there were on a planet. Participants were also given advice by a helpful ‘space advisor’ and could decide whether to stick with or switch their original decision. We found that adolescents, compared with children, had better metacognitive skills in that they were better able to intuit when they had made a good decision. This metacognitive skill allowed them to better resist misleading advice from others. ‘I know better, and I know I know better!’. More information can be found here:Moses-Payne ME, Habicht J, Bowler A, Steinbeis N & Hauser TU (2021). I know better! Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice. Developmental Science