News Archive

22.11.2023

New paper alert: Review on Catatonia, New England Journal of Medicine

Stephan Heckers and Sebastian Walther performed a state-of-the-art review on catatonia in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. They discuss multiple presentations and treatment of catatonia in various settings. Sensational Impact Factor of 158.5!

17.11.2023

Jessica Peter receives SNSF Starting Grant

Prof. Dr. Jessica Peter from the Department of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy receives an SNSF Starting Grant (~ CHF 1.8 million) to run a 5-year project on remembering and forgetting in health and disease. The project will combine non-invasive brain stimulation and neuroimaging to investigate how memories are formed or forgotten in younger and older healthy adults as well as in patients with depression.

13.11.2023

Stephanie Lefebvre won the 1st Poster prize at the SSBP 2023 annual symposium

In this work (in press in Brain) Stephanie Lefebvre et al. from Pr. Sebastian Walther's team explored the association between psychomotor slowing and cortical excitability in schizophrenia.

13.11.2023

Lydia Maderthaner won the clinical research poster prize at the 18th Annual Meeting Clinical Neuroscience Bern

In this work, Lydia Maderthaner and Sebastian Walther demonstrated that the subdomains of though disorders rely on different brain pattern alteration.

19.09.2023

Mélodie Derome, PhD wins the prestigious Frutiger Prize 2023 - two prizes were awarded

Mélodie Derome from the research group of Prof. Katharina Stegmayer has been conducting excellent neuroscientific research in youth and the so called ultra-high risk (UHR) period immediately preceding the onset of psychosis. It is important to note that the UHR period often occurs during adolescence, a period characterized by rapid and significant neural reorganization. However, still there is no consensus about the exact nature of impairment prior to the onset of the disorder. Mrs Derome was among the first to provide developmental measures during adolescence. She moved our understanding of three predic-tors: schizotypy, anomalous experiences of the self, and childhood trauma in schizophrenia significantly ahead, confirming the importance of positive schizotypy for the development of the risk to develop self-disturbances, in particular during the transition between childhood to adolescence. Schizotypy could therefore become one of the markers of psychosis risk. The prize will be a sustainable promotion of her excellent, cutting-edge research and will have a significant impact on her research carrier.

19.09.2023

Andjela Markovic, PhD wins the prestigious Frutiger Prize 2023 - two prizes were awarded

Andjela Markovic from the research group of Prof. Leila Tarokh has been thriving in performing cutting-edge research on the link between sleep behavior, neurophysiology, and environmental factors with several original and timely projects. For instance, based on longitudinal data from 781 families fol-lowed throughout the COVID-19 confinement in 2020, Dr. Markovic identified the risk and protective factors for young children’s sleep behavior and published this work in the Journal of Sleep Research. This knowledge creates opportunities for tailoring early interventions to support children’s sleep and thereby healthy devel-opment. Dr. Markovic's scientific track record is impressive, with her work already being cited over 280 times at this early stage of her career. She has been listed as an author in 16 original peer-reviewed publications. Of those, she has served as the first or last author 15 times, primarily in neuroscientific and psychiatric journals. In summary, Dr. Markovic is an exceptional, talented, and hard-working scientist who has demonstrated remarkable growth as a professional researcher.

11.06.2023

Victoria Chapellier won a Early Career Award at SIRS 2023

Congratulation to Victoria Chapellier from Sebastian Walther's team for her SIRS early career award.

11.06.2023

Melanie G Nuoffer won the Poster prize at the GISS 2023 for her work gait in schizophrenia

In this work, (doi: 10.1038/s41537-022-00324-x), Melanie G Nuoffer and Sebastian Walther demonstrated Patients with psychomotor slowing are specifically impaired when an adaptation of gait patterns is required, contributing to the deleterious effects of sedentary behaviours.

17.04.2023

Dr. Niklaus Denier receives support from the competitive Sitem-Insel Support Funds (SISF)

For his research project "Mindfulness and the thalamocortical system as drivers in the maintenance of alcohol abstinence - a high field MRI study" Niklaus Denier, MD, senior physician and scientist of the University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (PP) of the UPD, will be paid by the sitem-insel Support Funds for the MRI measurements in the Inselspital in the amount of approximately CHF 100,000. The project has been selected from ten applications as worthy of support, as the Vice Director Research of the University of Bern writes in his letter. Congratulations!

14.01.2023

Dr. Dr. Lukas Krone has won the 2022 Young scientist Award of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS)

The ESRS promotes Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine in Europe. The award is presented every biennially at the European Sleep Research Congress to four young scientists for outstanding scientific contributions. In his project together with the Universities of Oxford and Freiburg im Breisgau on the sleep-modulating effects of clozapine derivatives, Lukas Krone and his doctoral student Janine Traut were able to show systematic changes in the sleep architecture and sleep-related brain activity of mice by substances that have structural similarities to the antipsychotic clozapine. Lukas Krone has been working since 2021 as an assistant physician and "clinician scientist" at the University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the of the UPD. Previously, he completed his Ph. in medicine and neuroscience at the universities of Freiburg (Germany) and Oxford (United Kingdom). (UK). For his research on regulatory mechanisms of sleep of sleep, he has already received the Young Investigator Award of the the World Sleep Society in 2020 and the Young Investigator Award of the of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine.

04.01.2023

New paper alert: Psychomotor slowing alters gait in schizophrenia

In this study, Nuoffer et al., from S.Walther's team observe that patients with schizophrenia have aberrant gait profiles across multiple parameters such as lower cadence, shorter stride length, poorer gait performance, and less regular gait in several conditions. Moreover patients with psychomotor slowing are specifically impaired when an adaptation of gait patterns is required, contributing to the deleterious effects of sedentary behaviours. These gait impairments are associated with more severe hypokinetic movement disorders and negative symptoms.

12.12.2022

Annekatrin Steinhoff receives SNSF Starting Grant

Dr. Annekatrin Steinhoff from the research department of the University Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy receives an SNSF Starting Grant (~ CHF 1.8 million) to become an assistant professor at the University of Bern and run a project on adolescent self-harm for a period of five years. The project will focus on the biopsychosocial processes associated with self-harm onset and maintenance.

23.11.2022

New paper alert: How slow is slow ? Behavioral Mapping of Psychomotor Slowing in Psychosis

In this paper, Nadesalingam et al., from S. Walther's team established a behavioral mapping if psychomotor slowing in psychosis ( slower gait, lower activity levels, and slower finger movements). Wrist-based actigraphy and observer ratings were the only scale/measurement able to clearly disentangle patients with and without psychomotor slowing. Actigraphy may become the standard assessment of psychomotor slowing in neuroimaging studies and clinical trials.

17.11.2022

New paper alert: Group-level brain activations during a finger-tapping task are reliable over 3-weeks

In this study, Wüthrich et al. from S. Walther's team, report the group-level test-retest reliability of an fMRI finger-tapping task. We examined overlap of activations across two sessions using Dice Similarity Coefficients and investigated amplitudes of activations by calculation of ROI-based Intraclass Correlation Coefficients in three sets of ROIs. The task included four different tapping conditions and 31 healthy adults were included in the analyses. We found good to excellent overlap and fair to good amplitude agreement in most contrasts and ROI-sets.

17.11.2022

New paper alert: Measuring catatonia motor behavior with objective instrumentation

In this study, Känel et al., from S. Walther's team, describe how actigraphy can be used to measure specific catatonia symptoms such as immobility/stupor and staring. This may aid the detection, staging, and monitoring of catatonia in clinical settings.

17.11.2022

New paper alert: Study protocol for studuing Brain Stimulation and Group Therapy effect on gesture and Social Skills in Schizophrenia

In this Study protocol, Chapellier et al., from S. Walther's team describe the protocol of a Randomized, Sham-Controlled, Three-Arm, Double-Blind Trial using Brain Stimulation and Group therapy in order to enhance gesture and social skills performance.

20.10.2022

New paper alert: neurodevelopmental origin of catatonia in schizophrenia suggested by structural alreation of the motor cortex

In this work, S. Walther 's team demonstrated alteration in grey matter volume and cortical gyrification in the motor cortex as well as higher order cortical areas to be associated with the presence of catatonia in schizophrenia.

18.07.2022

Poster prize at the 22nd annual meeting of the Austrian Association of Psychiatry and Psychotherapie (ÖGPP) 28.-30.04.2022

In this work, Lydia Maderthaner and Sebastian Walther demonstrated that the subdomains of though disorders rely on different brain pattern alteration.

31.05.2022

Successful workshop on attentional control and prospective memory

With financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation PD Dr. Jessica Peter and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel brought together international and national experts as well as PhD students / Postdocs from Bern and Geneva to have a closer look into the interplay between attentional control and prospective memory. Thanks to everyone for the interesting talks and the lively discussions!

28.04.2022

The left - but not the right - prefrontal cortex governs episodic memory formation

In this study, Orth et al., from J. Peter's team used transcranial direct current stimulation to enhance either left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity during an incidental learning task. Only stimulation of the left prefrontal cortex enhanced episodic memory formation of information deemed relevant. In addition, only stimulating the left prefrontal cortex enhanced memory formation for positive content.

17.03.2022

Nonverbal social perception and social functioning

With this paper, Victoria Chapellier et al., from S. Walther's team, report on the association between deficits in nonverbal social perception in schizophrenia and poor social functioning, impaired functional capacity, blunted affect, avolition and reduced gesture expression. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.804093

17.03.2022

Motor abnormalities and Schizophrenia

In this paper, Nadesalingam et al. from S. Walther's team, demonstrated that motor abnormalities are associated with poor global and social functioning as well as with poorer functional capacity (i.e., the more severe the motor abnormalities are, the worse are the functional outcomes) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2022.152307

25.01.2022

Low physical activity in schizophrenia is related to motor abnormalities

A novel paper by Sebastian Walther and team reports on lower physical activity in patients with schizophrenia who also have parkinsonism or catatonia. These hypokinetic motor abnormalities are associated with poor physical health, even after correction for age or current medication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.11.014

04.11.2021

Eight year evaluation of the FETZ Bern

Description and evaluation of an early detection and intervention service for children, adolescents and adults (FETZ Bern) aged from eight to forty years in Bern, Switzerland. The FETZ Bern is the first early detection centre worldwide assessing children aged younger than twelve years as well as adolescents and young adults in one service. Considering that, developmental peculiarities are important in understanding and ultimately treating psychosis, the FETZ Bern, with its emphasis on developmental peculiarities, should be considered as a model for other similar services. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eip.13160

01.11.2021

Bi-Temporal Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation during Slow-Wave Sleep Boosts Slow-Wave Density but Not Memory Consolidation

Slow-wave sleep promotes long-term consolidation of episodic memories. This study aimed to modulate hippocampal activity during slow-wave sleep using bi-temporal anodal transcranial direct current stimulation. Stimulation increased slow-wave density but failed to improve memory retention across sleep. Stimulation may even impair retention of weakly encoded memories, presumably by inducing neuronal activity that benefits synaptic downscaling and thus forgetting over memory consolidation during sleep.

01.11.2021

New paper on non-invasive brain stimulation and cognitive training

In this study, Krebs and colleagues compared the effect of alternating (tACS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS) on a computer-based cognitive training in healthy older adults. TDCS was able to increase the efficacy of the cognitive training but only in participants with low general cognitive performance at baseline.

01.11.2021

New paper on the effects of cortisol administration on craving in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD)

In this study, Soravia, Moggi and de Quervain could show that cortisol as well as repeated in-vivo exposure to alcohol reduced craving in patients with severe AUD. Adding cortisol to in-vivo exposure might therefore be a promising approach for reducing the strength of drug-associated memories and promote the consolidation of extinction memory in patients with severe AUD.

01.11.2021

New Paper on Sleep Neurophysiology in Childhood Onset Schizophrenia

In this study, Markovic et al., examine sleep oscillatory activity as measured via EEG in children and adolescents diagnosed with childhood onset schizophrenia. Compared to age and sex matched controls, patients had diminished high frequency (beta) power over widespread cortical regions coupled with a pattern of hyperconnectivity across brain regions. This study demonstrates the utility of the sleep EEG in studying vulnerable populations and aiding in diagnosis.

18.10.2021

New paper on the relationship between paranoia severity and the functional connectivity within the limbic system

In this study, Walther, Lefebvre et al observed that an aberrant increased in functional connectivity between amygdala and hippocampus is linked to paranoia severity in patients with schizophrenia, indicating poor emotion regulation.

06.10.2021

New paper on soft signs and white matter in psychosis - not so soft after all

Discrete abnormalities in coordinating and sequencing movements are frequently found in psychosis. Previous studies associated these motor abnormalities with grey matter volume alterations. The novel paper by Viher and colleagues demonstrates alterations in major white matter tracts of the motor circuitry that are linked to neurological soft signs.

10.08.2021

New paper on the relationship between structure and function of the cholinergic system

In this study, Peter et al., investigated the relationship between volume of the brain cholinergic system and an electrophysiological measure of central cholinergic signal transmission in healthy adults and patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). They found that patients with MCI had a smaller volume of the cholinergic system than healthy volunteers. More volume of the cholinergic system was associated with better cholinergic signal transmission - but only in healthy adults and not in patients with MCI.

25.02.2021

Investigating the neurophysiology of implicit alcohol associations

Analyzing the pattern, timing and generators of Event-Related Potentials, Tschuemperlin and colleagues show that semantic and self-relevant information processing seems more effortful when patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) implicitly process positive alcohol associations, probably reflecting the highly ambivalent and personal nature of this topic in this patient group. Furthermore, male, but not female patients displayed an attenuation of emotional processing, thus underlining the importance of gender-sensitive research and treatment in AUD.

18.01.2021

New paper on the “addicted brain”

Rohde and colleagues showed in EEG study that impaired alcohol cue processing in patients with alcohol use disorders emerges early, at the stage of sensory processing. Such deficient initial processing seems crucial to understanding cue reactivity processes in the brain and in the subjective experience of craving. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2020.06.012