Prof. Dr. Nicolas Rohleder
Chair of Health Psychology

Prof. Dr. Nicolas Rohleder
Chair of Health Psychology

Our research focuses on the question of the mechanisms by which acute and chronic mental stress has a negative impact on health.

Research projects

  • Stress Response Patterns and Health
  • Chronic Stress and Health
  • Traumatic Stress and Health
  • Regulation of inflammatory processes as a mechanism between psychosocial stress and health
  • Digital biomarkers for stress
  • Investigation of the ability to cope with recurrent stressors, taking into account anxiety and stress management modes
  • Psychological determinants and biological stress response patterns in digital stress (fordigithealth)
  • “Violence in Institutions (VIOLIN)” funded by the Emerging Fields Initiative (EFI) of FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
  • “Psycho-biological treatment effects of trauma-focused painting therapy for patients with psychological and physical trauma sequelae” funded by the Staedtler Foundation

  • The olfactory mechanisms of empathic stress (OMES)

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Project leader:
    Term: 26. March 2025 - 25. March 2028
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)
    Abstract

    Empathy is essential for successful human interaction and cooperation. It is, however, a self-related emotion that may trigger negative states of pain or stress. Over prolonged time periods, high levels of empathy may therefore be linked to harmful consequences, including burnout and emotional distress. Previous research has shown that we can empathically catch the stress of others, down to the activation of our main stress axes, the sympathetic adrenomedullary system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA). Emotional and spatial closeness between individuals as well as touch boost the likelihood of displaying such empathic stress resonance. While resonating with another’s stress may improve mutual understanding, or prepare the empathic agent for an adaptive stress response themselves, a highly stress-charged family environment may predispose family members for chronic empathy-based stress activation and consequent susceptibility for stress-related disease. The study of empathic stress is still a relatively new field in stress research. Given the role of chronic HPA axis activation for health development, understanding the mechanisms of stress transmission is key to finding ways of preventing it, particularly in contexts of heightened exposure to others’ stress experience. Thus, we plan to address whether olfactory stimuli play a role in the transmission of stress from one individual to another. Also, given their involvement in the production of nervous sweat in situations of psychosocial challenge, we will elucidate how adrenaline and noradrenaline contribute to the hypothesized role of olfaction in empathic stress, potentially through an influence on the implicit and explicit perception of stress sweat. In this synergistically rich cooperation, the principal investigators will offer young scientists training across two laboratory sites. Our results will yield fundamental insight into the mechanisms of stress transmission. In doing so, they will lay the groundwork for developing approaches to protect vulnerable populations from the negative impact of chronic (empathic) stress.

  • VIOMIG: Verbal violence and stress in the context of migration: An integrative modeling from a linguistic and psychobiological perspective

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Project leader: ,
    Term: 15. October 2023 - 14. October 2026
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)

  • Applied Data Science in Digital Psychology

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Project leader: , ,
    Term: 1. September 2022 - 31. August 2026
    Funding source: Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (StMWK) (seit 2018)
    Abstract

    University education in psychology, medical technology and computer science currently focuses on teaching basic methods and knowledge with little involvement of other disciplines. Increasing digitalization and the ever more rapid spread of digital technologies, such as wearable sensors, smartphone apps, and artificial intelligence, also in the health sector, offer a wide range of opportunities to address psychological issues from new and interdisciplinary perspectives. However, this requires close cooperation between the disciplines of psychology and technical disciplines such as medical technology and computer science to enable the necessary knowledge transfer. Especially in these disciplines, there is a considerable need for innovative and interdisciplinary teaching concepts and research projects that teach the adequate use of digital technologies and explore the application of these technologies to relevant issues in order to enable better care in the treatment of people with mental disorders.

  • FEARFALL: Chronic stress level and functional health in older adults: the impact and role of fear of falling

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Project leader: , , ,
    Term: 1. April 2022 - 31. July 2027
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)
    Abstract
    Maintenance of physical function, mobility and ability to live independently are important goals for older persons. However, this is counteracted by age-related loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Furthermore, this degenerating process can be reinforced if the older person avoids physical activity and exercise due to fear of falling. We established that fall-related psychological concerns (FrPC) are not only leading to decreased physical activity, but are also associated with elevated levels of inflammation. Consistent with that, long-term exposure to adverse psychological conditions, including chronic stress and anxiety, have been linked to the upregulation of inflammatory activity. This chronic low-grade activation of the immune system was shown to intensify the decay of skeletal muscle. Therefore, a vicious, feed-forward cycle of fear of falling, inflammation, loss of muscle mass and decreasing physical function is created that ultimately results in negative health outcomes, i.e. falls, dependence and death. Exercise training alone is not likely to interrupt this cycle, because a person with elevated FrPC would experience high stress and thus more inflammatory cytokines, blunting the anabolic effects of the intervention. Therefore, the planned study will utilize a multi-component intervention with exercise training and cognitive-behavioral components to address FrPCs and oppose muscular decay. For this aim, the expertise of a psychological and a geriatric institute is necessary. The randomized controlled trial will be conducted using established effective training programs for reduction of FrPC. The intervention group will conduct at least one 60 min exercise session per week and an additional home program, while a sham control group will receive a multicomponent intervention including sham activity, cognitive training and educational health lecture at the same frequency. For the operationalization of specific FrPCs the Falls Efficacy Scale - International (FES-I) will be used. Stress and related psychological symptoms will be monitored by established self-reports and by measuring salivary cortisol. Concentrations of Creactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10) and tumor-necrosis-factoralpha (TNFα), as well as gene expression of select inflammatory transcripts, will be used as surrogate parameters of the inflammatory status at baseline and at several time-points during the intervention and follow-up. This will allow us to test whether the reduction of specific FrPCs or general psychological symptoms will reverse alterations in stress systems, and / or slow down low-grade inflammation. We will measure changes in activity, as well as psychological and biological pathways leading from FrPCs to muscle loss, to disentangle the individual contribution to sarcopenia, and to provide an additional pathway to break or slow-down the vicious cycle of FrPCs and sarcopenia.

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

Related Research Fields