Expectation Effects on Emotional Processing

Launched by UNIVERSITÄTSKLINIKUM HAMBURG-EPPENDORF · Jun 12, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This study is exploring how our expectations and past experiences affect the way we process emotions. Researchers want to understand how thinking positively or believing in a treatment can actually change how we feel and recognize emotions in others, especially happy faces. To do this, healthy adults will take part in brain scans (fMRI) while completing tasks that involve identifying emotions on faces. The study compares times when participants are led to have positive expectations (like a placebo effect) with times when no specific expectations are set. The goal is to see how these positive expectations influence mood and brain activity related to emotions and thinking.

Adults aged 18 to 35 who are generally healthy, can safely have an MRI scan, and speak German may be eligible to join. Participants should have normal or corrected vision and must agree to the study by signing consent forms. People currently taking certain medications, pregnant or breastfeeding, or with certain health issues won’t qualify. During the study, participants will be asked to complete tasks inside an MRI machine while their brain activity is measured. It’s important that participants believe in the treatment during screening, as this belief is part of the study. The findings could help us better understand how our minds influence emotions and could guide new ways to treat mood disorders in the future.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Aged 18-35 years
• • MRI compatible
• • Medical information and signed declaration of consent
• • Normal or corrected to normal vision
• • German speaking
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • No informed consent
• • Current intake of central nervous system active drugs
• • Under influence of alcohol
• • BDI score above 12
• • Significant acute somatic or neurological diseases
• • History of psychiatric or neurological disorders
• • Pregnancy/ breastfeeding
• • Acute nasal diseases or injuries
• • MR-specific exclusion criteria (claustrophobia, pacemaker, non-MR compatible metallic objects)
• • fMRI data with strong artefacts or excessive movement will be excluded from analysis
• • If a participant does not believe in the treatment on the screening day, they will not be included for the main study days
• • If a participant drops out after study day one, they will be excluded from the analysis