Main Focus
My interest in translational psychiatry dates back to the time of my clinically oriented Bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley. After gaining insight into highly relevant machine learning methods during my Master studies in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology at LMU, I knew I wanted to contribute to the further development of translational psychiatry and improvement of clinical care. In the scope of my PhD studies, I have been investigating the effects of a computerized social cognitive training (SCT) paradigm on cognition, symptoms, and resting state functional connectivity in patients with early psychosis. Social cognitive deficits are a hallmark of early psychosis and they represent one of the main risk factors for poor functional outcome. As part of my PhD thesis, I want to develop models that can predict response to SCT by using multivariate pattern analysis and stratifying individuals likely to profit from SCT based on multimodal data we acquire during this project.