Arousal fundamentally impacts normal and abnormal behavior and 'arousal and regulatory systems' has been implemented as one of the basic domains of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Symptoms of hypersomnia and insomnia are highly prevalent in the normal population, and in neurological and psychiatric disorders they are especially pronounced and occur across different disease categories, such as insomnia, affective disorders and ADHD. In these diseases, arousal dysregulation has been suggested to play a pathogenetic role (Geissler, Romanos, Hegerl & Hensch, 2014; Hegerl, Sander & Hensch, 2016).
In this project we analyze brain arousal and its temporal dynamics in psychiatric disorders, such as uni- and bipolar depression and (hypo)mania, and whether arousal and its regulation may predict treatment response.
Note: Special Issue "CNS-Arousal—Transdiagnostic Relevance and Therapeutic Implications" in Brain Sciences is now open for submission.
Recent selected publications:
Ulke C, Wittekind DA, Spada J, Franik K, Jawinski P, Hensch T, Hegerl U. Brain arousal regulation in SSRI-medicated patients with major depression. J Psychiatr Res. 2019 Jan;108:34-39. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.11.003. Epub 2018 Nov 3.
Ulke C, Tenke CE, Kayser J, Sander C, Böttger D, Wong LYX, Alvarenga JE, Fava M, McGrath PJ, Deldin PJ, Mcinnis MG, Trivedi MH, Weissman MM, Pizzagalli DA, Hegerl U, Bruder GE. Resting EEG Measures of Brain Arousal in a Multisite Study of Major Depression. Clin EEG Neurosci. 2019 Jan;50(1):3-12.
Ulke C, Sander C, Jawinski P, Mauche N, Huang J, Spada J, Wittekind D, Mergl R, Luck T, Riedel-Heller S, Hensch T, Hegerl U. Sleep disturbances and upregulation of brain arousal during daytime in depressed versus non-depressed elderly subjects. World J Biol Psychiatry. 2017 Dec;18(8):633-640.
Wittekind DA, Spada J, Gross A, Hensch T, Jawinski P, Ulke C, Sander C, Hegerl U. Early report on brain arousal regulation in manic vs depressive episodes in bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord. 2016 Sep;18(6):502-510.
Hegerl U, Sander C, Hensch T (2016). Arousal regulation in affective disorders. In: T Frodl (Hrsg.) Systems Neuroscience in Depression (p. 341 - 370) Elsevier Verlag.
Geissler J, Romanos M, Hegerl U & Hensch T (2014). Hyperactivity and sensation seeking as autoregulatory attempts to stabilize brain arousal in ADHD and mania? ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders 6, 159-173.
Hegerl U & Hensch T (2014). The vigilance regulation model of affective disorders and ADHD. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 44, 45-57.