Welcome, Hassan!Hassan Bassam has recently joined us as a PhD student!
He is interested in how large scale brain connectivity can inform behaviour in autistic and non-autistic people, in particular social behaviours such as emotion regulation. In his work, he tries to understand better the link between the brain and behaviour.
We wish him all the best for his doctoral studies!
Podcast: Mental health in the pandemic Patient and public involvement in research: B-PartProf. Dr. Isabel Dziobek and Silke Lipinski are coordinating a new Patient and public involvement (PPI) group: The Berlin Circle for Participatory Research in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry (B-Part).
What is B-part?
Patient and public involvement in clinical research, i.e. research in which patients are actively involved, improves the relevance and quality of studies and empowers those affected. However, research in the field of clinical psychology and psychiatry still takes too little account of the participation of patients. The Berlin Circle for Participatory Research in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry (B-Part) was established to enable patients to participate more actively in the selection of topics, planning, implementation and dissemination of research results in Berlin and the surrounding area. B-Part is a place of exchange for patients, clinically active researchers and other stakeholders, in which participatory projects are discussed, support is given and concrete methods of patient involvement are developed.
Participation
You are welcome to participate in B-Part at any time. The meetings take place virtually via zoom. For the next dates and further information, please send an email to psysekks@hu-berlin.de.
Isabel Dziobek’s interview for Women in Science DayIn her interview for the Max Planck Schools, Isabel talks about her passion for science, how important it is to develop self-confidence as a female scientist and how this can be supported by targeted leadership programs.
You can find the full interview (in English) here.
Dziobek Lab at the 1st Digital Scientific Conference Autism Spectrum (WTAS)The Scientific Conference Autism Spectrum (WTAS) is the largest symposium on autism in the German-speaking world and is organized annually by the Society for Research in Autism Spectrum Conditions (WGAS), which was co-founded by Prof. Dziobek. This year, Sandra Naumann, one of our PhD candidates, was in charge of organizing the WTAS, which took place from March, 3-5 2021. The conference had the overarching theme “Significance of the Environment”.
The Dziobek lab participated with various talks and posters at the 1st Digital WTAS: Magdalena Matyjek and Simone Kirst gave an oral presentation, while Mareike Bayer, Katharina Bögl, Silke Lipinski and Muyu Lin presented posters. Thus, the WTAS 2021 provided a stimulating platform to exchange our knowledge with other researchers, practitioners as well as affected persons and their relatives.
Welcome, Julia!Julia Klauder has recently joined us as a new lab manager!
She will support the team in financial and strategic matters.
Happy to have you, Julia!
SCOTT and Zirkus Empathico on air at Deutsche Welle!In our digital intervention tools, S.C.O.T.T. and Zirkus Empathico were documented on behalf of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a Deutsche Welle contribution. Isabel Dziobek reports about their benefits for individuals on the autism spectrum and Zirkus Empathico is tested for the first time with an autistic boy (production by CONTEXT FILM Produktion for doc.station Medienproduktion GmbH; in German).
Welcome, Mahi!Mahlet Kassa has recently joined us as a PhD student!
She is interested in the relationship between our sense of bodily self and social
cognition i.e. how we interact with others. Specifically, how interoception (the perception
of signals from within the body) contributes to one’s concept of self and how this in turn interacts and influences affective and cognitive empathy.
We wish her all the best for her doctoral studies!
Isabel Dziobek on TV! “nano” features our robot Pepper and the Virtual Interaction TaskThe TV program “nano” from September 24, 2019 (min. 17.30, in German) reports about the “Virtual Interaction Task” (VIT) that was developed by Hanna Drimalla and Isabel Dziobek. And, for the first time, an autistic boy accompanied by Isabel Dziobek meets our robot “Pepper” (project “ERIK” on child-robot interaction).
“Long Night of Science” is a an annual popular science event in Berlin, during which interested visitors can approach scientists, learn about what they do, and participate in short experiments.
For the 2019 edition, we prepared a short experiment, in which participants played a repeat-a-pattern game on a gamepad and we monitored their pupillary responses to received social feedback.
The mini-experiment was very popular and we got to record 40+ datasets! It was fun and informative for the visitors and a great learning experience for us – we had a chance to talk about our lab and communicate our research to the general public!
A big thank you goes to Lena Matyjek who organised the experiment and the stand, and to all the students who volunteered their time and conducted the recordings: Sarah Margo Gawronska, Theresa Weinstein, Ekin Gül Demirsoy and Luca Settembrino! 
