Thilo Hinterberger

• Dr.rer.nat.
• University Hospital Regensburg

Zusammenfassung Die häufigsten Symptome des PCS sind anhaltende Fatigue und kognitive Störungen, welche Aktivität und Teilhabe im Beruf und im täglichen Leben erheblich beeinträchtigen. Es gibt zunehmend Evidenz für die Effektivität rehabilitativer Behandlungsansätze. Nichtsdestotrotz werden v. a. in den sozialen Medien Stimmen laut, die die Rehabi...

Hypnosis is recognized as an effective non-pharmacological intervention for managing anxiety, pain, and physiological stress during invasive medical procedures. Despite its growing use, variability in techniques and inconsistent outcome measurements have challenged its clinical standardization. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the...

Aims: Fracture-related infections (FRIs) are a major concern for patients and healthcare systems, yet their impact on mental health has been largely overlooked. This study aimed to assess the longitudinal impact of FRI on patients' quality of life. Methods: A prospective study was conducted at a level 1 trauma centre between January 2020 and Decemb...

Background The relationship between spirituality and mental health has garnered attention, fostering overall well-being. Spirituality, posited as a protective factor, may enhance resilience and provide meaning, thus benefiting mental health. This study aims to identify spirituality-associated factors influencing clinical outcomes in psychosomatic i...

Background Post COVID-19 condition (PCC) is increasingly recognized as a debilitating condition characterized by persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Neuropsychological deficits, including cognitive impairments and fatigue, are prevalent in individuals with PCC. The PoCoRe study aimed to evaluate the burden of neuropsychological defi...

Background: Post-Covid syndrome (PCS) is associated with vari- ous physical symptoms and reduced cardiopulmonary perfor- mance. This can be seen in motor fatigue, reduced performance in the six-minute walk test (6MWT), in lung function (LF) and in blood gas analyses (BGA) before, during and after moderate aero- bic exercise. Our study investigated...

Aims Fracture-related infections (FRIs) are a devastating complication of fracture management. However, the impact of FRIs on mental health remains understudied. The aim of this study was a longitudinal evaluation of patients’ psychological state, and expectations for recovery comparing patients with recurrent FRI to those with primary FRI. Method...

Introduction Invasive pneumococcal disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in infectious diseases. Selective reporting of antibiotic susceptibility test results might lead to a tailored antibiotic therapy and could therefore be an important antibiotic stewardship program intervention. The aim of this study was to analyse whether a switc...

Hintergrund. Zu den häufigsten Symptomen des Post-COVID Syndroms (PCS) zählen Müdigkeit, Fatigue, bzw. eine unverhältnismäßige Erschöpfung und kognitive Störungen (z.B. Gedächtnis-/Konzentration, Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit, Daueraufmerksamkeit) (Gogoll et al., 2023). Diese anhaltenden Symptome beeinträchtigen die Leistungs- und Funktionsfähigkeit im...

Hintergrund. Kognitive Symptome, wie Konzentrations- und Aufmerksamkeitsstörungen, als auch depressive Symptome, wie Energieverlust oder Schlafstörungen und Fatigue sind für das Post-COVID Syndrom (PCS) kennzeichnend (Gogoll et al., 2023). Das Fachgebiet der Psychosomatik ist mit kognitiven Beeinträchtigungen, wie z.B. bei Depression vertraut. Da k...

Einleitung: Bewegungstherapie ist ein zentraler und gut evaluierter Bestandteil der Rehabilitation mit PCS. Forschungsbedarf besteht allerdings hinsichtlich Nebenwirkungen im Sinne einer Post Excertional malaise (PEM, Pouliopoulou et al., 2023). In der Psychosomatik ist Bewegungstherapie zudem ein Erfahrungsraum, in dem dysfunktionale Muster aktual...

Background Sensory processing sensitivity is mainly captured based on questionnaires and it’s neurophysiological basis is largely unknown. As hitherto no electroencephalography (EEG) study has been carried out, the aim of this work was to determine whether the self-reported level of SPS correlates with the EEG activity in different frequency bands....

Background: This study aimed at answering the following research questions: (1) Does the self-reported level of sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS) correlate with complexity, or criticality features of the electroencephalogram (EEG)? (2) Are there significant EEG differences comparing individuals with high and low levels of SPS? Methods: One hundr...

Recently, unexpectedly high virus-specific IgG4 levels were reported after more than two mRNA vaccinations. Class switch towards IgG4 occurs after long-term antigen exposure, downregulates immune responses and is associated with several autoimmune diseases. Here, we examined differences in antigen-specific IgG subtypes in serum samples from 64 Post...

PoCoRe): Studienprotokoll einer multizentrischen Studie bei verschiedenen Fachrichtungen Beim Post-COVID-Syndrom können neben körperlichen Einschränkungen auch kognitive Einschränkungen, Fatigue, Dyspnoe sowie Depressionen und Angststörungen auftreten. Stand Oktober 2022 haben sich weltweit ca. 624 Millionen Menschen mit SARS-CoV-2 infiziert (Deuts...

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease associated with pain, loss of function and reduced quality of life. Concomitant psychological disorders can significantly influence treatment outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) How has the incidence of primary coxarthrosis and gonarthrosis developed over the l...

Background: The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive overview of German nationwide data including (i) the number of hospitalized Post-COVID Syndrome (PCS) cases including in-hospital mortality rates and intensive care unit treatments, (ii) the main common concomitant diagnoses associated with PCS, (iii) the most frequently performed tr...

Research suggests that stays in a forest promote relaxation and reduce stress compared to spending time in a city. The aim of this study was to compare stays in a forest with another natural environment, a cultivated field. Healthy, highly sensitive persons (HSP, SV12 score > 18) aged between 18 and 70 years spent one hour in the forest and in the...

Background In Patients suffering from post-COVID syndrome, in addition to physical limitations, cognitive limitations, fatigue, dyspnea as well as depression and anxiety disorders may also be present. Up to now (as of May 2022), approx. 514 million people worldwide have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, in Germany this affects approx. 25 million. In G...

Background Periprosthetic joint infection represents a major complication in orthopaedics and trauma surgery. For an ideal management approach, it is important to understand the distinct challenges for all persons involved in the treatment. Therefore, it was aimed at investigating (1) the impact of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) on the well-b...

Objective No current model of consciousness is univocally accepted on either theoretical or empirical grounds, and the need for a solid unifying framework is evident. Special attention has been given to the premise that self-organized criticality (SOC) is a fundamental property of neural system. SOC provides a competitive model to describe the phys...

This study was based on the contemporary proposal that distinct states of consciousness are quantifiable by neural complexity and critical dynamics. To test this hypothesis, it was aimed at comparing the electrophysiological correlates of three meditation conditions using nonlinear techniques from the complexity and criticality framework as well as...

Background and Objectives: In recent years, singing bowl sound interventions have been progres-sively implemented in the fields of well-being, therapy and education; however, the effective-ness has only scarcely been investigated. Therefore, this study was aimed at determining neu-rophysiological effects of a singing bowl massage. Materials and Me...

Introduction: Cormirnaty® was the first available vaccine in Europe that contains mRNA encoding the spike protein of SARS-CoV2. An enormous peptide commonality and thus molecular mimicry between SARS-CoV2 spike protein and human proteins could be shown. Molecular mimicry could be attributable to SARS-CoV2 associated illness. Objectives: So far satu...

Background: Up to 80% of patients suffering from persistent symptoms more than six months after a COVID-19 infection complain about a variety of psychosomatic symptoms with no organ cause. Most patients suffer from chronic fatigue, pain, depression or difficulty concentrating. Experimental studies showed that these symptoms could be significantly i...

Objective Bone infections represent a major complication in orthopedic and trauma surgery. Concomitant psychological disorders can significantly influence treatment outcomes. However, these are often overlooked. Therefore, we aimed to determine the nationwide epidemiology of fracture-related infection (FRI) and osteomyelitis in combination with psy...

Zusammenfassung. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden die faktorielle Struktur und die Messinvarianz der Kid-KINDL Selbst- und Fremdeinschätzung bei 8- bis 11-jährigen psychisch kranken Kindern untersucht (Kid-KINDL Selbst : N = 441, Mädchen: 52 %, Jungen: 48 %, Alter: M = 9.44, SD = 1.12; Kid-KINDL Fremd : N = 462, Mädchen: 55 %, Jungen: 45 %, Alter:...

We have reported previously on positive effects found in the matrix experiment. This is a setup where a random event generator (REG) drives a display, which participants are instructed to “influence” at will, i.e., in a psychokinesis (PK) setup. The difference of this matrix experiment from standard micro-PK REG experiments was that the deviation f...

Zusammenfassung. Lebenskompetenzen stellen Fähigkeiten dar, aus denen eine salutogene Lebensführung resultiert. Dadurch können sie sowohl als Basis als auch als wichtiger Indikator für den therapeutischen Prozess dienen. Hier wird ein Selbsteinschätzungsinstrument vorgestellt, welches an N = 2 054 Patientinnen und Patienten der stationären psychoso...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund In Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie werden Basisdokumentationen (BaDo) als Instrument zur Qualitätssicherung eingesetzt. Für den Bereich der Kinder-, Jugend- und Familienpsychosomatik gibt es bisher keine einheitliche einrichtungs- und sektorenübergreifende Basisdokumentation. Das Ziel der Studie war es, auf...

Background For a better understanding of the factors underlying the Post-Acute COVID Syndrome, we studied the relationship between symptoms and functional alterations in COVID-19 patients 10 months after hospitalization. Methods One-hundred-one patients hospitalized between March 1st and June 30th 2020 participated in a follow-up visit for an asse...

Aims We aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of fracture-related infection (FRI) on patients’ physical health and psychological wellbeing. For this purpose, quality of life after successful surgical treatment of FRIs of long bones was assessed. Methods A total of 37 patients treated between November 2009 and March 2019, with achieved eradication...

Background Non-union after fracture depicts a devastating complication in trauma surgery and studies assessing patient-reported outcome measures after stable bone consolidation are rare. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of aseptic long bone non-union on the patients’ physical health state and psychological wellbeing. For this pu...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die periprothetische Gelenkinfektion (PJI) ist eine gefürchtete Komplikation in der Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie. Ein potenzieller Anstieg an PJI-Diagnosen, insbesondere in Verbindung mit psychologischen Komorbiditäten, kann zu einer besonderen Herausforderung für Akteure im Gesundheitswesen werden. Bisher ist die Prä...

We aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of fracture-related infection (FRI) on patients' physical health and psychological wellbeing. For this purpose, quality of life after successful surgical treatment of FRIs of long bones was assessed. Methods A total of 37 patients treated between November 2009 and March 2019, with achieved eradication of in...

Objectives: There is quite a debate about frequencies around 8 Hz playing a role in the human brain but also in micro-vibrations in muscles of the body. There are also claims about a positive bodily and mental influence of various kinds of vibrating whole-body stimulations. We have studied the effects of such a rhythmic whole-body stimulation on a...

Background: Recent research shows that placebo mechanisms can be utilized in ethical and legal ways such as in open-label conditions, when patients know that they receive placebos, and through psychological interventions aiming to optimize patients’ expectations. Showing that placebo interventions are also cost-efficient could improve their accepta...

We report an independent replication of a micropsychokinesis experiment. This is the fifth and largely independent replication of an experiment involving human intention operating on a random number generator. We assume that any “influence” of consciousness on a random number generator is not a direct, causal influence, but due to as yet poorly und...

Numerous methods for enhancing consciousness and well-being emphasize the role of breathing. For the first time, we have investigated the link between body rhythms and slow cortical brain dynamics during paced breathing. We present physiological data from 37 participants who performed paced breathing sessions with respiration rates (RRs) from 6 to...

Hintergrund: Zur Erfassung einer erhöhten Verarbeitungssensibilität bei Patienten in der stationären psychosomatischen Behandlung wurde ein Fragebogen entwickelt, der anders als Fragebögen zur Messung von Hochsensibilität die Konstrukte der Wahrnehmungssensibilität und Verarbeitungsproblematik trennen soll. Methoden: Zunächst wurde eine 30 Items um...

Neuronal interactions coupled by phase synchronization have been studied in a wide range of frequency bands, but fluctuations below the delta frequency have often been neglected. In the present study, phase synchrony in slow cortical potentials (SCPs, 0.01–0.1 Hz) was examined during two different mental states; a resting state and a breath-focused...

Zusammenfassung: Die Frage nach der Entstehung des Lebens und seinen selbsterhaltenden Prozessen ist eine der großen Rätsel der Naturwissenschaften. Hierüber gibt es unterschiedliche Annahmen, die auch heute noch keine eindeutige Antwort zulassen, uns jedoch bereits tiefe Einblicke in das Wunder des Lebens ermöglichen. Historisch wurde eine Art Leb...

Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary effort to understand the structures and functions of the brain and brain-mind relations. This effort results in an increasing amount of data, generated by sophisticated technologies. However, these data enhance our descriptive knowledge, rather than improve our understanding of brain functions. This is caused by...

The Sensorium is a multimodal neurofeedback environment that reflects a person's physiological state by presenting physiological signals via orchestral sounds from a speaker and multi-coloured lights projected onto a white surface. The software manages acquisition, real-time processing, storage, and sonification of various physiological signals suc...

The readiness potential is an ongoing negativity in the EEG preceding a self-initiated movement by approximately 1.5seconds. So far it has predominantly been interpreted as a preparatory signal with a causal link to the upcoming movement. Here a different hypothesis is suggested which we call the selective slow cortical potential sampling hypothesi...

Background/objectives: ThetaHealing® (Vianna Stibal, Kalispell, MT) is a spiritual healing method in which the practitioner and client engage in joint meditations during several healing sessions. It is claimed that these meditation periods are characterized by a "theta state" in which the presence of theta-waves in the electroencephalograph (EEG)...

Background: A pilot study of an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program on a sample of low back pain patients was conducted in order to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention as well as changes in an EEG pattern called thalamocortical dysrhythmia which is associated with chronic pain. Patients and methods:...

An essential aspect of counsciousness is rooted in the subjectivity of the human experience. Such subjectivity implies that we are all individual beings, and each moment is unique. This uniqueness of each moment is a fundamental wisdom taught in many meditation schools. However, most research focusing on uncovering the psychophysiological correlate...

A common view of consciousness is that our mind presents emotions, experiences, and images in an internal mental (re-)presentation space which in a state of wakefulness is triggered by the world outside. Consciousness can be defined as the observation of this inner mental space. We propose a new model, in which the state of the conscious observer i...

When a voluntary action is causally linked with a sensory outcome, the action and its consequent effect are perceived as being closer together in time. This effect is called intentional binding. Although many experiments were conducted on this phenomenon, the underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood. While intentional binding is specifi...

The Boundary Protection Scale - 14 (BPS-14) represents a new instrument to capture the degree of protection of the mental self-boundary for use in mindfulness training, therapeutic work and scientific research. We assumed a relation between the ability to protect the self-boundary and mindfulness skills. For more efficient use the original version...

Background: The Interpersonal Attention Management Inventory (IAMI) represents a new instrument to capture self- and external perception skills. The underlying theoretical model assumes 3 mental locations of attention (the intrapersonal space, the extrapersonal space, and the external intrapersonal space) of the other. Methods: The IAMI was stud...

When a voluntary action causes a sensory outcome, actions and their subsequent effects are perceived as being closer together in time, this effect being called intentional binding. Since studies on perceived time are highly dependent on subjective reports, an avenue to gain more reliable subjective reports regarding the precise moment of a temporal...

Many neuroscientific theories explain consciousness with higher order information processing corresponding to an activation of specific brain areas and processes. In contrast, most forms of meditation ask for a down-regulation of certain mental processing activities while remaining fully conscious. To identify the physiological properties of consci...

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00099/abstract

It has been repeatedly shown that specific brain activity related to planning movement develops before the conscious intention to act. This empirical finding strongly challenges the notion of free will. Here, we demonstrate that in the Libet experiment, spontaneous fluctuations of the slow electro-cortical potentials (SCPs) account for a significan...

The increase of psychosomatic disorders due to cultural changes requires enhanced therapeutic models. This study investigated a salutogenetic treatment concept for inpatient psychosomatic treatment, based on data from more than 11000 patients of a psychosomatic clinic in Germany. The clinic aims at supporting patients' health improvement by fosteri...

The increase of psychosomatic disorders due to cultural changes requires enhanced therapeutic models. This study investigated a salutogenetic treatment concept for inpatient psychosomatic treatment, based on data from more than 11000 patients of a psychosomatic clinic in Germany. The clinic aims at supporting patients' health improvement by fosteri...

The term complementarity plays a central role in quantum physics, not least in various approaches to defining entanglement and the conditions for its occurrence. It has, however, been used in a variety of ways by different authors, denoting different concepts and relationships. Here we describe and clarify some of them and analyze the role they pla...

Die Suche nach Korrelationen zwischen den Gehirnaktivitäten räumlich getrennter Teilnehmerpaare war in den vergangenen Jahren immer wieder Gegenstand experimenteller parapsychologischer Forschung. Diese Methode kann als ein geeignetes Werkzeug betrachtet werden, um die Hypothese einer extrasensorischen oder telepathischen Verbindung von sich nahest...

Several recent studies report the presence of a specific EEG pattern named Thalamocortical Dysrhythmia (TCD) in patients with severe chronic neurogenic pain. This is of major interest since so far no neuroscientific indicator of chronic pain could be identified. We investigated whether a TCD-like pattern could be found in patients with moderate chr...

CONSORT checklist. (DOC)

Clinical description of all patients. (DOC)

Trial Protocol. (PDF)

Although alternative methods have been proposed, mindfulness is predominantly measured by means of self-assessment instruments. Until now, several scales have been published and to some degree also psychometrically validated. The number of scales reflects the widespread research interest. While some authors have started to compare the underlying co...

The study of meditation offers a perfect setting for the study of a large variety of states of consciousness. Here, we present a classification paradigm that can be used for staging of individual meditation sessions into a variety of predefined mental states. We have measured 64 channels of the electroencephalogram (EEG) plus peripheral physiologic...

“Meditation” has frequently been used as an umbrella term for diverse consciousness practices. Although neuropsychological state and trait measures in persons experienced in meditation practice have been reported during the last years, there is no consensus about their phenomenological meaning and correlation with experiences. In this study we aime...

The objective of this study was to examine whether the "step back and watch" attitude of mindfulness manifests in less emotional behavior. We hypothesized that the "acceptance" facet of mindfulness, but not the "presence" facet, is negatively associated with the magnitude of emotional behavior in four tests, i.e., (1) rating of words, (2) rating of...

Hypnosis can be seen as a guided induction of various states of consciousness. This article details a time-series analysis that visualized the electrophysiological state changes during a session as a correlate to the instructions. Sixty-four channels of EEG and peripheral physiological measures were recorded in 1 highly susceptible subject. Signifi...

The Sensorium is a neurofeedback environment that allows people to experience signals from their nonperceptible body processes visually and auditorily. Various (neuro-)physiological rhythms and frequencies are projected simultaneously as soundscapes and “lightscapes” into the environment. A wireless physiological amplifier device sends signals such...

Neuroscientific evidence interprets both hypnotic trance induction and different meditation traditions as modified states of consciousness that emphasize attention, concentration and the letting go of thoughts, but they differ in terms of sensory input, processing, memory, and the sense of time. Furthermore, hypnosis is based on the suggestibility...

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used for communication in writing without muscular activity or for learning to control seizures by voluntary regulation of brain signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG). Three of five patients with epilepsy were able to spell their names with electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals derived from motor-related...

Zusammenfassung - Die Erforschung einer außersinnlichen Verbindung zwischen Versuchspersonen, welche sich in der Korrelation ihrer Gehirnaktivitäten widerspie- geln könnten, hat inzwischen in Freiburg eine beachtliche Tradition. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Methoden und Ergebnisse von drei EEG-Studien berichtet, die von Hinterberger et al. in...

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used for communication in writing without muscular activity or for learning to control seizures by voluntary regulation of brain signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG). Three of five patients with epilepsy were able to spell their names with electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals derived from motor-related...

The latest research in the development of technologies that will allow humans to communicate, using brain signals only, with computers, wheelchairs, prostheses, and other devices. Interest in developing an effective communication interface connecting the human brain and a computer has grown rapidly over the past decade. The brain-computer interface...

The latest research in the development of technologies that will allow humans to communicate, using brain signals only, with computers, wheelchairs, prostheses, and other devices. Interest in developing an effective communication interface connecting the human brain and a computer has grown rapidly over the past decade. The brain-computer interface...

The presentation of pictures evokes clearly detectable responses in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Here, the question is addressed whether people show an anomalous pre-stimulus response prior to a sudden appearance of pictures. Therefore, twenty participants were exposed at randomised times to affective and non-affective pictures, and to checkerbo...

Behavioral and cognitive improvements in children with ADHD have been consistently reported after neurofeedback-treatment. However, neurofeedback has not been commonly accepted as a treatment for ADHD. This study addresses previous methodological shortcomings while comparing a neurofeedback-training of Theta-Beta frequencies and training of slow co...

Electrical brain signals (Electroencephalogram, EEG) as well as other physiological measures can be sonified with a device called POSER, a module of the brain-computer interface 'Thought Translation Device' (TTD). Orchestral sonification allows for presentation of several EEG components simultaneously in real-time, referred to as 'brainmusic'. Here...

We have previously demonstrated that an EEG-controlled web browser based on self-regulation of slow cortical potentials (SCPs) enables severely paralyzed patients to browse the internet independently of any voluntary muscle control. However, this system had several shortcomings, among them that patients could only browse within a limited number of...

An overview of different approaches to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) developed in our laboratory is given. An important clinical application of BCIs is to enable communication or environmental control in severely paralyzed patients. The BCI ´Thought-Translation Device (TTD)´ allows verbal communication through the voluntary self-regulation of br...

In this paper we give an overview of our work on a self-pace asynchronous BCI that responds every 0.5 seconds. A statistical Gaussian classifier tries to recognize three different mental tasks; it may also respond unknown for uncertain samples as the classifier has incorporated statistical rejection criteria. We report our experience with different...

One major challenge in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research is to cope with the inherent nonstationarity of the recorded brain signals caused by changes in the subjects brain processes during an experiment. Online adaptation of the classifier embedded into the BCI is a possible way of tackling this issue. In this chapter we investigate the effec...