Nadine Gogolla's research is all about the neural basis of emotions. What exactly are emotions and how do they differ from feelings? How can emotions be measured objectively and made scientifically researchable? And what happens in psychiatric disorders when emotions seem to get the upper hand, such as during depression or anxiety disorder? The research team is using the mouse as an animal model and is developing new methods to make emotions scientifically measurable. Using modern artificial intelligence and machine vision techniques, the researchers can precisely track the emotional state of individual mice and investigate the brain processes through which emotions arise.
The department aims to build bridges between basic animal research and clinical research to gain a better understanding of the circuitry of emotions. This could become the basis for new therapeutic approaches to psychiatric disorders.