My general research interest is the phenomenon "Human Being": What it is that makes us who and what we are? What is essentially human in our existence? The contact to philosophical thought steming from thinkers in the tradition of phenomenology, especially the work of Martin Heidegger, inspired me and is still fascinating me. I think that the cooperation between this school of thought and the cognitive neurosciences has the potential to bring about interesting insights into the nature of the human Being. I would like to find a way to integrate such different methods as brain imaging techniques, standard behavioral paradigms from cognitive psychology, approaches from personality psychology and first-persons methods (as used e.g. in the social sciences). By this mix of methods I would like to try to understand a little better how it is to be a human and how this feeling is reflected in different epistemological domains.
The working title of my PhD studies is "The Inability to Want -
Neuronal Correlates of Apathy and Impaired Motivation":
I want to investigate the phenomenological and neuroscientic characteristics of volitional
processes. I am especially interested in how affective states might influence volitional
efficiacy in normal and in impaired populations.
The lack of motivation (apathetic symptoms) is a central symptom of
depressive disorders. And here, the relation to the world seems to be altered, too.
This is why I investigate volitional processes in depressed patients using neuroscientific methods
combined with apporaches from personality and cognitive psychology and an interview method from
the field of sociology.