Projects
Dopamine-ghrelin interactions as novel targets for therapy resistant anxiety disorders Vrije Universiteit Brussel
What is the most effective strategy to reduce fears in exposure therapy? An experimental study of devaluation and extinction learning in anxiety disorder patients and the neurobiological basis KU Leuven
Anxiety disorders are very common mental health disorders. They are characterised by excessive anxiety that interfere with daily life functioning. These disorders can be treated with psychological therapy: exposure therapy is the gold standard. Many patients however show an insufficient response to exposure therapy or relapse afterwards (up to 50%). There is a pressing need to improve the efficacy of the therapy. It is therefore necessary to ...
Acute effects of the physical and social environment on anxiety and perceived stress and their impact on walking levels in people with epilepsy Ghent University
Many people with epilepsy (PWE) do not meet the physical activity (PA) guidelines. However, PA has antiepileptic and anxiolytic effects, which is of utmost importance for PWE, since stress and anxiety are very common triggers of seizures. Walking is an accessible and feasible way to be active. The physical and social environment positively influences walking levels in the general population. Therefore, this project will examine how PA (more ...
“Completed life” – A matter of existential anxiety? Creating an in- depth understanding through an existential psychological perspective. KU Leuven
Attention for the phenomenon “tiredness of life”, “weariness of life”, or “completed life” – relatively healthy older adults experiencing their life as completed and not worth living anymore – is rising in Dutch and Belgian media and fuels the debate about broadening the possibility of assisted suicide. The pressure to address this issue contrasts sharply with a lack of empirical knowledge on the conceptualization and measurement of the ...
Anxiety as gatekeeper in the access to negative affect during early error detection: an experimental approach Ghent University
Error detection is an utmost important cognitive control function, enabling us to learn new contingencies, as well as adjust our behavior appropriately. Whereas this process is seen as rather fast and automatic, it is also substantially influenced by core affective factors, including anxiety. Typically, this internalizing disorder boosts early error monitoring brain effects, even though the functional meaning of these overactive error ...
From Pavlov to visceroception? The role of interoceptive fear conditioning in the development of gastrointestinal symptom-specific anxiety, and its impact on visceroption. KU Leuven
As a cardinal symptom of most functional gastrointestinal disorders, visceral pain and discomfort are very common and disabling. Unfortunately, such symptoms remain poorly understood and are hard to treat. There is a general consensus that fear towards gastrointestinal sensations may play an important role, but the mechanisms underlying such fear as well as its impact on visceral symptom perception are unclear. The project aims to elucidate ...
When the peak of anxiety is displaced from its root: Implications for extinction learning and exposure treatment KU Leuven
This dissertation has two aims: (1) to provide a relevant contribution to the effectiveness of exposure therapy and (2) to optimize the preclinical fear conditioning paradigm. The first ambition arose from the question of the importance of the cause of a phobia for the effectiveness of exposure therapy. Research in the experimental literature suggests that exposure to the cause of a phobia (e.g., the dog that bit the patient) is crucial to ...