Helena Hartmann

University Hospital Essen | UK Essen · Clinic for Neurology

The shared representations account of empathy suggests that sharing other people's emotions relies on neural processes similar to those engaged when directly experiencing such emotions. Recent research corroborated this by showing that placebo analgesia induced for first-hand pain resulted in reduced pain empathy and decreased activation in shared...

Open science aims to improve the rigor, robustness, and reproducibility of psychological research. Despite resistance from some academics, the open science movement has been championed by some early career researchers (ECRs), who have proposed innovative new tools and methods to promote and employ open research principles. Feminist ECRs have much t...

Administration of painkillers has been shown to lower pain empathy, but whether this also reduces prosocial behavior is not known. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether inducing analgesia through a placebo painkiller reduced effortful helping. When given the opportunity to reduce the pain of another person, individuals experiencing p...

Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers.

Not all people conform to what is socially construed as the norm and divergences should be expected. Neurodiversity is fundamental to the understanding of human behaviour and cognition. However, neurodivergent individuals are often stigmatised, devalued, and objectified. This position statement presents the perspectives of neurodivergent authors, t...

The emergence of large-scale replication projects yielding successful rates substantially lower than expected caused the behavioural, cognitive, and social sciences to experience a so-called ‘replication crisis’. In this Perspective, we reframe this ‘crisis’ through the lens of a credibility revolution, focusing on positive structural, procedural a...

Placebo responsiveness is highly variable across individuals. In the domain of pain, it may range from pronounced hypoalgesia to no response at all. Which factors predict such variation awaits clarification, as the available literature is characterized by mixed and inconclusive results. Particularly interesting in this case are social factors such...

Introduction: Receiving touch is of critical importance for human well-being. A large number of studies have shown that touch promotes mental and physical health. However, effect sizes differ considerably across studies and potential moderators of touch interventions remain unknown to this day. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and a large-...

The emergence of large-scale replication projects yielding successful rates substantially lower than expected caused the behavioural, cognitive, and social sciences to experience a so-called ‘replication crisis’. In this Perspective, we reframe this ‘crisis’ through the lens of a credibility revolution, focusing on positive structural, procedural a...

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergradu...

Study preregistration has become increasingly popular in psychology, but its effectiveness in restricting potentially biasing researcher degrees of freedom remains unclear. We used an extensive protocol to assess the strictness of preregistrations and the consistency between preregistration and publications of 300 preregistered psychology studies....

La science ouverte vise à améliorer la rigueur, la robustesse et la reproductibilité de la recherche en psychologie. Malgré la résistance de certain·es universitaires, le mouvement de la science ouverte a été soutenu par certain·es chercheur·euses en début de carrière (ECR), qui ont proposé de nouveaux outils et des méthodes innovantes pour promouv...

The preprint is about how participatory research movement and neurodiversity movement can benefit the open scholarship movement and vice versa, leading to a more generalisable and accurate science of human behaviour and cognition.

Painkiller administration lowers pain empathy, but whether this also reduces prosocial behavior is unknown. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether inducing analgesia through a placebo painkiller reduced effortful helping. When given the opportunity to reduce the pain of another person, individuals experiencing placebo analgesia ( n =...

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness, and reproducibility of research, characterized by higher standards of scientific evidence, increased interest in open practices, and promotion of transparency. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approa...

Self-other distinction is a crucial aspect of social cognition, as it allows us to differentiate our own mental and emotional states from those of others. Research suggests that this ability might be impaired in individuals on the autism spectrum, but convincing evidence of self-other distinction difficulties in the emotional domain is lacking. Her...

Self-other distinction is a crucial aspect of social cognition, as it allows us to differentiate our own mental and emotional states from those of others. Research suggests that this ability might be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but convincing evidence of self-other distinction deficits in the emotional domain is lac...

The shared representations account postulates that sharing another’s pain recruits underlying brain functions also engaged during first-hand pain. Critically, direct causal evidence for this was mainly shown for affective pain processing, while the contribution of somatosensory processes to empathy remains controversial. This controversy may be exp...

Previous research indicates that the size of interpersonal space at which the other is perceived as intrusive (permeability) and the ability to adapt interpersonal distance based on contextual factors (flexibility) are altered in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the neurophysiological basis of these alterations remains poorly understood. To...

Empathy for pain involves the affective-motivational and sensory-discriminative pain network. The shared representations account postulates that sharing another's pain recruits underlying brain functions also engaged during first-hand pain. Critically, causal evidence for this has only been shown for affective pain processing, while the specific co...

In order to manipulate the type of social interaction experienced with the two confederates, a modified version of the Repeated Trust Game was used. In particular, the back-transfer behavior of the two trustees (confederates) was computer-controlled in the same way as in Rosenberger et al. 2020, so that participants always played with a cooperative...

Interpersonal space can be defined as a safety zone immediately surrounding our body, which allows us to feel comfortable during social interactions. Previous studies indicate that the size of interpersonal space at which the other is perceived as intrusive (permeability) and the ability to adapt interpersonal distance based on contextual factors (...

Open Science aims to improve the rigour, robustness, and reproducibility of psychological research. Despite resistance from some academics, the Open Science movement has been championed by some Early Career Researchers (ECRs), who have proposed innovative new tools and methods to promote and employ open research principles. Feminist ECRs have much...

The shared representations account of empathy suggests that sharing other people’s emotions relies on neural processes similar to those engaged when directly experiencing such emotions. Recent research corroborated this by showing that placebo analgesia resulted in reduced pain empathy and decreased activation in shared neural networks. However, th...

The mean ratings and standard deviations of 20 healthy adults are listed in Table 4. When the participants were actively playing (DOa), they judged the other person’s feelings more negative when they themselves were being excluded from the game (Exclusion Bias) and more positive when they themselves were being included in the game (Inclusion Bias)....

Neurotypical participants were recruited via flyers and email inquiries, media advertisement of the study in Facebook groups, as well as via the LABS-System (Laboratory Administration for Behavioral Sciences) of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna. Prior to the study, all interested participants were cleared for any risk factors c...

One of the most unique aspects of the human mind is social cognition – defined as the processing of information in a social setting (Frith, 2008). By perceiving the thoughts and feelings of the people around us and empathizing with them in the process, we distinguish ourselves from other non-human species. With these innate perception skills, that...

The present study aims to expand current scientific knowledge about the neural bases of empathy, particularly focusing on socio-cognitive skills and egocentricity in the normal and autistic population. Following an interdisciplinary approach by combining behavioral and neurophysiological data in one paradigm, the present thesis targets to add valua...

Helena Hartmann examines the crucial concepts of cognitive empathy, emotional egocentricity and social pain of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She thereby provides valuable insights into the investigation of social cognition of both the neurotypical as well as autistic population. Since past research has revealed that individuals w...

Aims: Empathy, the ability to feel with another person, has already been widely studied in both neurotypical as well as clinical populations, being fundamental for everyday social interactions. However, such a social skill is not free from error. Since humans primarily use their own emotions and perceptions in guiding their thoughts about conspecif...