Department of Medical Psychology & Medical Sociology
Faculty of Medicine
Ruhr University Bochum
Universitätsstr. 150
44801 Bochum
Phone:
+49 (0)234 32-25439
Email:
sigrid.elsenbruch@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
How does the human brain process perceptions arising from inside the body, especially aversive signals from the gastrointestinal system, and can "gut feelings" influence our thinking, feeling and behavior? Our brain is closely linked to the digestive tract via the gut-brain axis. These reciprocal connections play an important role, especially in the context of chronic abdominal pain and in the development of affective disorders. However, the normal and altered perception from inside the body (interoception) and its neuronal representation in the brain is not yet well understood. From a neuroscientific perspective, fascinating research questions arise at the interface between basic research and clinical practice in order to better understand the complex interactions between the brain and body periphery. We conduct experiments with human volunteers (behavioral experiments, functional magnetic resonance imaging, patient studies) in which we investigate how stress, expectations and learning processes influence the perception of visceral and somatic pain. A particular interest within the field of psychoneuroimmunology is the role of inflammation in acute and chronic pain. We pursue a translational research perspective in close cooperation with different departments and clinics of the RUB and other German and international universities.
Pawlik, R. J., Petrakova, L., Cueillette, A., Krawczyk, K., Theysohn, N., Elsenbruch, S., & Engler, H. (2023). Inflammation shapes neural processing of interoceptive fear predictors during extinction learning in healthy humans. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 108, 328–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2022.12.010
Icenhour, A., Petrakova, L., Hazzan, N., Theysohn, N., Merz, C. J., & Elsenbruch, S. (2021). When gut feelings teach the brain to fear pain: Context-dependent activation of the central fear network in a novel interoceptive conditioning paradigm. NeuroImage, 238, 118229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118229
Koenen, L. R., Pawlik, R. J., Icenhour, A., Petrakova, L., Forkmann, K., Theysohn, N., Engler, H., & Elsenbruch, S. (2021). Associative learning and extinction of conditioned threat predictors across sensory modalities. Communications Biology, 4(1), 553. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02008-1
Benson, S., Engler, H., Wegner, A., Schedlowski, M., & Elsenbruch, S. (2020). Elucidating vulnerability to inflammation-induced hyperalgesia: Predictors of increased musculoskeletal pain sensitivity during experimental endotoxemia. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 88, 302–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020.06.022
Claassen, J., Koenen, L. R., Ernst, T. M., Labrenz, F., Theysohn, N., Forsting, M., Bingel, U., Timmann, D., & Elsenbruch, S. (2020). Cerebellum is more concerned about visceral than somatic pain. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 91(2), 218–219. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2019-321025
Benson, S., Siebert, C., Koenen, L. R., Engler, H., Kleine-Borgmann, J., Bingel, U., Icenhour, A., & Elsenbruch, S. (2019). Cortisol affects pain sensitivity and pain-related emotional learning in experimental visceral but not somatic pain: A randomized controlled study in healthy men and women. Pain, 160(8), 1719–1728. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001579
Koenen, L. R., Icenhour, A., Forkmann, K., Pasler, A., Theysohn, N., Forsting, M., Bingel, U., & Elsenbruch, S. (2017). Greater fear of visceral pain contributes to differences between visceral and somatic pain in healthy women. Pain, 158(8), 1599–1608. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000924
Roderigo, T., Benson, S., Schöls, M., Hetkamp, M., Schedlowski, M., Enck, P., & Elsenbruch, S. (2017). Effects of acute psychological stress on placebo and nocebo responses in a clinically relevant model of visceroception. Pain, 158(8), 1489–1498. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000940
Icenhour, A., Kattoor, J., Benson, S., Boekstegers, A., Schlamann, M., Merz, C. J., Forsting, M., & Elsenbruch, S. (2015). Neural circuitry underlying effects of context on human pain-related fear extinction in a renewal paradigm. Human Brain Mapping, 36(8), 3179–3193. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22837
Schmid, J., Langhorst, J., Gaß, F., Theysohn, N., Benson, S., Engler, H., Gizewski, E. R., Forsting, M., & Elsenbruch, S. (2015). Placebo analgesia in patients with functional and organic abdominal pain: A fMRI study in IBS, UC and healthy volunteers. Gut, 64(3), 418–427. https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2013-306648
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Last update: Mar 04, 2024
