psychomotor behaviors and the primary motor cortex
2023 we read about intereffector regions rdcu.be/fbYue
2025 we found specific features in patients with psychoses and psychomotor slowing. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Very similar to a 2026 report in parkinson's disease rdcu.be/fbYry
Every PI
Had to leave SIRS conference 2026 early @sirsofficial.bsky.social
But it was again a wonderful conference with lots of exciting research and interactions. My highlight: The amazing talk by John McGrath on Psychosis Epidemiology
And Florence 🇮🇹 is just an epic place to spend time
Finally, in schizophrenia lower grip strength was associated with more severe negative symptoms.
Great work by our team: Sofie von Känel, Anastasia Pavlidou, Stew Shankman, Vijay Mittal, and many more
We found lower grip strength in all patients versus controls, particularly, there was no difference between current and remitted depression. Remarkably, the grip strength deficit persisted in subjects who are remitted from depression indicating continued motor control impairments.
Grip strength has been linked to physical health and motor control. Lower grip strength was reported in depression or psychosis. We tested grip strength in 533 individuals, including subjects with current depression, remitted depression, and schizophrenia.
Happy to share our new work:
A simple measure of motor control and fitness is very informative...
Transdiagnostic Patterns of Grip Strength in Schizophrenia, Current Depression, and Remitted Depression url: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
red line is the combined treatment, blue line is sham rTMS plus real psychotherapy, green line is sham psychotherapy
Can we boost 🚀 psychotherapy effects with rTMS 🧲 in schizophrenia? Yes, we can: rdcu.be/eNM8h
Combined treatment increased social functioning at the end of treatment - even persisting at 6 months follow-up.
This encouraging finding will stimulate work optimizing the protocols.
The last 12 hours provided wonderful scenery. Just to interrupt the heavy rain.
How does the🧠create psychomotor abnormalities?
Our recent article in @pnas.org offers some insight. Specific areas within the primary motor cortex seem to be altered in psychomotor slowing and linked to motor behaviors. These areas might become new treatment targets
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
ERC Starting Grants were awarded to (clockwise): Jerome Beetz, Mona Garvert, Beatrice Baragli, Jake Greenfield, Jens Hör, and Jacqueline Degen. (Photos: Robert Emmerich / Kerstin Flake / Daniel Hanoch / Chris Weiss / Nik Schölzel / Thomas Hovestadt)
We are very proud of our researchers Beatrice Baragli, Jerome Beetz, Jacqueline Degen, Mona Garvert, Jake Greenfield, and Jens Hör: They have been awarded prestigious ERC Starting Grants worth €1.5 million. Congratulations! @erc.europa.eu #ERCStG
➡️ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-...
🚨 Come work with us! A 3-year postdoc position is available in my group, focusing on gaze interactions in real and virtual environments. The job ad is only in German, since a certain level of German proficiency is required. Please share widely! @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social
New paper alert:
Here we demonstrate a specific communication deficit in psychosis related to hand gestures. Further, gesture impairments seem to depend on the specific symptom profile of individuals related to negative symptoms or formal thought disorder.
doi.org/10.1093/schb...
some weeks ago, we published this beauty:
rdcu.be/eD5TA
A simple behavioral test shows that patients with paranoia prefer larger interpersonal space. The new dataset replicates our 2016 finding, but now linked this also to dysfunctional stress regulation and poor outcome in 6 months.
Enjoying a fantastic meeting on neuroimaging in psychiatry: the BaCI 2025 in Munich
ecnsweb.net/munich-ecns-...
Meeting in rooms full of history and the spirit of psychiatry heroes...
The other place is now truly dreadful. So, let's try this bluesky again - back after one year.
In the meantime, I started a new job. Working in Germany again after 20 years in Switzerland.
The 🦠 finally got a hold of me. Ruined all Christmas plans for everyone. After four days in bed, first walk outside today with lovely weather...
Nach einer unbeschwerten und pünklichen DB Reise von Ulm nach Bochum gestern, habe ich heute leider kein Bahnglück 😑. Die meisten Züge Richtung Schweiz fallen aus.
In 20 Stunden soll meine Vorlesung in Bern starten. Schaffen wir das?
what a lovely Sunday walk. 🌞🥶
Proud moment: My team published a new paper on neural correlates of psychomotor disturbance in depression. Less movement = thalamocortical connectivity increased; more movement = higher pallidocortical connectivity. Data came from Marburg-Münster Affective Disorders cohort
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
Alright, so Nature-Springer just got hacked and they stole my data... I guess this is a radically new approach to data sharing and open data...
Ich freue mich auf eine lange Bahnfahrt nächste Woche, auf der ich hoffentlich ungestört Manuskripte schreiben und editieren kann. Ist das jetzt schon Bahnvorfreude? 🤔
Friday night started with an Email announcing acceptance of an important manuscript. I love this start of the weekend 😀
Final call! Come work with us!
Exciting new paper in molecular psychiatry from collaborating with Igor Nenadic, Ahmad Abu-Akel and team:
Hippocampal subfield volume and CBF are linked to an interaction of schizotypy traits with autism traits in a large sample of healthy subjects.
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
Ich kenn die Geschichte so, dass ein Student seit Jahrzehnten nicht mehr aus den verwinkelten Katakomben der Ruhr Uni Bochum herausfindet, aber diese Version ist auch gut (und vermutlich näher an der Wahrheit).
#halloween #bochum #rub
www.waz.de/staedte/boch...
congratulations. This will be great
these activate my baroreceptors... 🫣
on the other social media app, the NIMH recommended a publication of ours.
makes me happy
here's the paper in schizophrenia bulletin:
doi.org/10.1093/schb...
