Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Lebenswissen­schaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Psychologie

Weitere Informationen auf http://www.dziobek-lab.org/

CV

Research interests

I am investigating the role of depression in the link between autism and affective mimicry. Affective mimicry, which refers to the imitation or matching of non-verbal behaviors that are emotionally meaningful during social interactions, has been shown to be a relevant altered biomarker in autism spectrum disorder. Given the importance of affective mimicry in the expression of the desire to affiliate with others as well as emotional understanding, its dysfunction affects how the self operates in social context.

Depression, the most common psychiatric disorder in ASD with a comorbidity rate as high as 40% in autistic adults, has also been linked with altered affective mimicry where depressed individuals showed lowered mimicry for either happy or both happy and sad faces. Although research in depression is equivocal, there is some evidence for dysfunctional mimicry in the disorder. 

The current project makes use of the large dataset from the FASTER/SCOTT study to isolate the role of depression (i.e. its mediating effect) on the known association between autism spectrum disorder and affective mimicry via a video based Simulated Interaction Task that captures affect specific mimicry in autistic and non-autistic participants. The outcomes of the study will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of behavioral markers in ASD as well as help improve diagnostic methods for comorbid disorders.

Publications

2023

Chen, W., Kassa, M. T., & Cheung, O. S. (2023). The role of implicit social bias on holistic processing of out-group faces. Cognitive research: principles and implications, 8(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00464-3