Senses like sight, hearing, touch and smell give orientation in everyday life. Thus, our brain needs to efficiently combine information from different modalities to a coherent percept. The availability of information from different modalities results in multimodal facilitation which means a reduction in reaction times to stimuli that comprise different senses and a facilitated perception under impaired conditions. 

Recent research indicates that processes of multimodal integration are impaired in people with psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia or autism). In our research group, we focus on different aspects of this complex phenomenon (e.g. spatial, temporal and semantic) in psychiatric patients by applying neurophysiological techniques to investigate underlying neural mechanisms.

One specific example of multisensory perception is speech perception: Typically, speech is perceived via auditory information about the voice and visual information about the lip movement. The visual information has a significant impact on speech perception by facilitating speech perception in noisy environments. The integration process of auditory and visual information to a coherent percept can be examined in the McGurk illusion in which incongruent visual and auditory information leads to a completely different speech perception. In the present project, we focus on neural activity patterns of multimodal speech perception in different populations.

Imagine yourself at a cocktail party: You become introduced to a group of four people. Everyone welcomes you friendly and tells you their names. The party is very noisy, so that you cannot understand the voice of the last person. One week later you meet the same group of people at another party. Whose face are you most likely going to remember?

Many everyday situations comprise multisensory information. Therefore, our brain utilizes complex processes to integrate information from different modalities. The working memory is one of these processes that process multisensory information. Moreover the working memory shows pathological impairments in a number of psychiatric disorders. This deficit is associated with strong impairments in the patient’s everyday life. 

However, most studies investigate the working memory from a unimodal perspective. Therefore, we focus on the examination of the working memory in psychiatric populations under multisensory, naturalistic conditions to derive reliable information about the impact of crossmodal interactions.  

In the present project, we are interested in the relationship between mechanisms of aggression regulation and video gaming. Therefore, we utilize the General Aggression Model (GAM) for the investigation of excessive use of violent video games. The GAM states a causal relation between the excessive use of violent video games and short-term aggressive or impulsive behavior. This behavior is supposed to be traced back to an emotional desensitization and an associated loss of empathy. Our project focusses on the effects of the excessive use of violent video games on neurophysiological processes and structures.

Research on return to work (RTW) after mental illness focuses mainly on the time before the return, the time during and after the return has hardly been considered. The present project aims on filling this gap by implementing an intensified support in five care clinics. For this purpose, a multiprofessional team provides guidance for patients with psychiatric disorders during and after the return to work to provide a long-term support. The implemented concept links medical-therapeutic treatment with corporate actions to reinforce the job-related reintegration. The project will be evaluated by assessing the sustainable return, the incapacity to work, the functionality and the self-efficacy expectation as well as self-reported incapacity to work days. The concept will be manualized and in case of a positive evaluation implemented in psychiatric institute clinics.

• Mohammadi, B., Szycik, G. R., te Wildt, B., Heldmann, M., Samii, A., & Münte, T. F.  (2020). Structural brain changes in young males addicted to video-gaming. Brain and Cognition, 139, 105518. DOI
• Tietze, F. A., Hundertmark, L., Roy, M., Zerr, M., Sinke, C., Wiswede, D., ... & Szycik, G. R. (2019).  Auditory deficits in audiovisual speech perception in adult Asperger’s syndrome: fMRI study. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2286. DOI
• Zerr, M., Freihorst, C., Schütz, H., Sinke, C., Müller, A., Bleich, S., ... & Szycik, G. R. (2019). Brief sensory  training narrows the temporal binding window and enhances long-term multimodal speech perception. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2489. DOI
• Rüsseler, J., Ye, Z., Gerth, I., Szycik, G. R., & Münte, T. F. (2018). Audio-visual speech perception in adult readers with dyslexia: an fMRI study. Brain imaging and behavior, 12(2), 357-368. DOI
• Haß, K., Bak, N., Szycik, G. R., Glenthøj, B. Y., & Oranje, B. (2017). Deficient prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex in schizophrenia using a cross-modal paradigm. Biological psychology, 128, 112-116. DOI
• Haß, K., Sinke, C., Reese, T., Roy, M., Wiswede, D., Dillo, W., ... & Szycik, G. R. (2017). Enlarged temporal integration window in schizophrenia indicated by the double-flash illusion. Cognitive neuropsychiatry, 22(2), 145-158. DOI
• Sinke, C., Neufeld, J., Zedler, M., Emrich, H. M., Bleich, S., Münte, T. F., & Szycik, G. R. (2014).  Reduced audiovisual integration in synesthesia–evidence from bimodal speech perception. Journal of neuropsychology, 8(1), 94-106. DOI
• Sinke, C., Neufeld, J., Wiswede, D., Emrich, H. M., Bleich, S., Münte, T. F., & Szycik, G. R. (2014). N1 enhancement in synesthesia during visual and audio–visual perception in semantic cross-modal conflict situations: an ERP study. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 21. DOI
• Szycik, G. R., Ye, Z., Mohammadi, B., Dillo, W., Te Wildt, B. T., Samii, A., ... & Münte, T. F. (2013). Maladaptive connectivity of Broca’s area in schizophrenia during audiovisual speech perception: an fMRI study. Neuroscience, 253, 274-282. DOI
• Münte, T. F., Stadler, J., Tempelmann, C., & Szycik, G. R. (2012). Examining the McGurk illusion using high-field 7 Tesla functional MRI. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 95. DOI
• Neufeld, J., Sinke, C., Zedler, M., Emrich, H. M., & Szycik, G. R. (2012). Reduced audio–visual integration in synaesthetes indicated by the double-flash illusion. Brain research, 1473, 78-86. DOI
• Neufeld, J., Sinke, C., Dillo, W., Emrich, H. M., Szycik, G. R., Dima, D., ... & Zedler, M. (2012). The neural correlates of coloured music: A functional MRI investigation of auditory–visual synaesthesia. Neuropsychologia, 50(1), 85-89. DOI
• Szycik, G. R., Jansma, H., & Münte, T. F. (2009). Audiovisual integration during speech comprehension: An fMRI study comparing ROI‐based and whole brain analyses. Human brain mapping, 30(7), 1990-1999. DOI
• Szycik, G. R., Tausche, P., & Münte, T. F. (2008). A novel approach to study audiovisual integration in speech perception: localizer fMRI and sparse sampling. Brain Research, 1220, 142-149. DOI

moldenhauer.nadine@mh-hannover.de

borgolte.anna@mh-hannover.de

ghaneirad.erfan@mh-hannover.de

epmann.marvin@mh-hannover.de

schuetz.helene@mh-hannover.de

khallieva.vlada@mh-hannover.de