Program

In this symposium, we present four studies that highlight the multifaceted nature of socio-emotional functioning, a key factor in interpersonal relationships, mental health, and overall well-being. By integrating physiological markers, neural correlates, and behavioral measures, we shed light on how attentional, affective, and cognitive factors shape emotional experiences across diverse contexts.

The first talk by Janna Teigeler (Würzburg) employs a novel gaze-controlled approach-avoidance paradigm, in which fixating on or averting one’s gaze from emotional stimuli alters their salience. Although participants took longer to avoid than to approach, no consistent affect-congruency effects emerged, indicating complex underlying mechanisms in gaze-based emotion regulation. The second talk by Alexander Lischke (Hamburg) underscores the potential of vagally-mediated heart rate variability as a sensitive biomarker for emotion recognition, with higher variability linked to enhanced detection of nuanced expressions in both adult and child faces. Turning to trust and decision-making, the third talk by Kilian Stenzel (Marburg) demonstrates that facial trustworthiness robustly influences trust choices, with EEG measures revealing persistent neural differences when encountering trustworthy versus untrustworthy faces—even when feedback contradicts appearance. Lastly, the fourth talk by Annika Conrad (Dresden) explores empathy and theory of mind as predictors of post-traumatic stress symptoms following indirect trauma exposure. Preliminary results from a trauma film paradigm and neuroimaging point to distinct socio-affective and socio-cognitive pathways that may heighten vulnerability to trauma-related disorders.

Together, these studies underscore the importance of integrating physiological markers, neural correlates, and behavioral measures to advance our understanding of socio-emotional processes.