Studies on eating disorders

The focus of the research group (head: Prof. Dr. Jennifer Svaldi) is to investigate mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of pathological eating behaviour and body image disorders. For this purpose, risk populations, overweight persons and persons with eating disorders are examined using various methods (eye movement measurement, EEG, fMRI, psychophysiology, reaction time measurements, ambulatory assessment) and designs ranging from experimental psychopathology research to field studies and intervention research.

Current projekts:

• The influence of transcranial direct current stimulation on the perception of food
• The influence of inhibitory control on mood in overweight individuals
• Neuronal correlates of body image disturbance in binge eating disorder
• Cognitive processing of food stimuli in binge eating disorder
• Mechanisms of body image disturbance in binge eating disorder
• Improving body dissatisfaction in overweight and obesity
• Effects of oxytocin on cognition and mood in binge eating disorder
• Mechanisms of pathological eating behavior in children and adolescents
• Effectivity of a body image training in women with bulimia nervosa
• Augmentative effects of D-Cycloserin on the effectivity of mirror exposure
• Cognitive and affective processing of food stimuli in adolescent anorexia and bulimia nervosa
• Cognitive-affective mechanisms of body image disturbance in adolescent anorexia and bulimia nervosa
• Binge eating and neuronal variability

Finished projects:

• Emotion regulation in binge eating disorder
• Effectivity of mirror exposure in anorexia nervosa
• The influence of evaluative stress on body perception
• Cognitive-affective body-related processing in bulimia nervosa
• Cognitive bias for food stimuli in binge eating disorder