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June 3 – Welcome Evening
June 4-6 – Conference
Keynote speakers
Shamay-Tsoory, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa https://sans.hevra.haifa.ac.il
Title: It takes two to empathize: Inter-brain coupling during empathic interactions
Abstract: Although empathy occurs in social interactions, research on empathy have largely focused on covert mechanisms of empathy in the observer (empathizer), without exploring how empathic reactions affect the distress of the target.
In a set of experiments, we examined a feedback loop model that describes the participation of empathy-related brain regions in the interpersonal emotion regulation cycle. A central role in the empathy feedback loop is played by inter-brain coupling between regions in the observation-execution system (including the inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobe) of interacting participants.
Given that empathic interactions develop over time, the question remains whether inter-brain coupling can increase over the course of one or multiple interactions. We recently suggested that inter-brain plasticity, the ability of interacting brains to modify the coupling between brains in reaction to repeated interactions underlies learning in social interactions (Shamay-Tsoory, 2021). We examined this approach in a study on psychotherapy and demonstrate gradual increase in inter-brain coupling between the client and psychotherapist over three therapeutic sessions. These findings indicate that as the therapist adapts her response to the client, the inter-brain networks between them reconfigure. This framework may explain how empathic responses may improve over time and how we learn to mutually adapt our responses during social interactions.
Monika Schönauer, University of Freiburg https://uni-freiburg.de/neuropsychologie/schoenauer/
Title: The role of reactivation in forming long-term memories.
Short Bio: Monika Schönauer is Chair of Neuropsychology at the Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg. Her research group investigates how humans form stable long-term memories. Using multimodal brain imaging to follow learning-induced physiological changes in the human brain, they investigate the factors that contribute to successful memory storage both in wakefulness and during sleep. A particular focus is on the role of reactivation – the reprocessing and rehearsal of learned information.
Organization team (alphabetical order)
Beate Ditzen
Gordon Feld
Martin Gerchen
Nina Judith Kempf
Peter Kirsch
Christoph Korn
Nora Moog
Bastian Schiller