Draft:Experimental Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience –Lab (ECAN Lab)

The Experimental Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab (ECA) is located in the Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala University, Sweden. It focuses on neuroimaging, psychology and medicine, to study various aspects of neural processing in relation to affective stimuli and cognitive tasks. Studies are done in individuals and during social interactions. The group studies healthy participants and clinical cohorts. Some methods include fMRI, PET, EEG, fNIRS and psychophysiological measurements.

Research activities The interplay between emotions and ovarian steroid hormones has been in particular focus, such as how the changes in sex hormone levels during puberty interacts with levels of anxiety.

The laboratory looks at how profound changes in physiology (such as during hypoglycemia or after a sudden decrease in blood flow), as well as more subtle manipulations (such as the intake of caffeine) affect affective symptoms and brain function.

Research activities include mechanisms underlying treatment effects, both regarding pharmaceutical treatments such as SSRI, brain stimulating techniques such as ECT and TMS as well as therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy. The laboratory works with in-depth studies of learning process during extinction, using conditioning as a proxy for mechanisms activated during exposure therapy or fear learning. ECAN also conducted studies that explore the mechanisms behind the placebo effect, both in more general terms and in relation to affective disorders.

Partners in Sweden The ECAN lab collaborates with Uppsala University's Center for Women's Mental Health (WOMHER) and Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (Circus). The team members also coordinate the activities in "Anxiety - an interdisciplinary research network".

International partners ECAN is currently part of RE-MEND (or here, in Swedish) and Youth Mental Health and collaborates with the research centers WOMHER, CIRCUS and CMH. The team members also coordinate activity in anxiety - an interdisciplinary research network.

Researchers Lab leaders: Malin Gingnell & Andreas Frick

Post docs: Johanna Mottilla-Hoppe Johan Vegelius

PhD-students: Magdalena Wlad Lykke Silfverbrand Ebba Widegren Ashika Roy Patricia Gil Paterna Barry Karlsson Carolina Knihs de Camargo Carl Brandt Sara Chergia

Laboratory manager: Hampus Berg

Previously associated: Matilda Frick, post doc (now at Stockholm University, Sweden) Wiebke Struckmann, PhD (now at Stanford, USA)