iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My team at Uni Hamburg is looking for a PhD candidate. We are interested in the role played by intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation and social interaction between parents with affective disorders and their children. The job posting can be found here: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...

uni-hamburg.de

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Incredible study by Katha Hierl one of our finest PhD students in the CRC TRR 393

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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/

Abstract

When we empathize with someone going through something, we often draw on our past experiences with the someone and the something. These kinds of experiences ground "thick empathy", a form of empathy that has been largely overlooked in the psychology and neuroscience literature. Consider how a mother, empathizing with her daughter about to give birth, can draw on her own experience of childbirth, and her relationship with her daughter, to deeply grasp what her daughter is going through in a way that others who lack those experiences cannot. I argue that thick empathy deserves more empirical attention because it is associated with well-being and helps us build networks of effective mutual social support. My analysis highlights novel risks and dilemmas posed by "empathy machines" that promise to enhance or even replace human empathy and are becoming increasingly popular as a potential solution to widespread loneliness. Even when empathy machines provide value to individuals, their widespread adoption risks imposing collective emotional and epistemic costs that ultimately make it harder for us to empathize well.

Keywords: empathy, understanding, experience, thick description, ethnography, phenomenal knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

I think that a lot of people migrated to linkedin - but maybe that is only relevant to my community

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Kaitlyn M. Werner, PhD @kaitlynmwerner.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

The Stanford Psychophysiology Lab (PI: James Gross) is hiring a new lab manager! If you have a superstar student interested in emotion, please share this ad with them! Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Job ad: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-... #psychjobs

careersearch.stanford.edu

Social Science Research Coordinator in School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford, California, United States

The Department of Psychology’s Psychophysiology Lab is seeking a full-time Social Science Research Coordinator (RC) position. The RC will be an...

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Mark Thornton @markthornton.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

New paper from me at Cognition and Emotion! "Deep neural network models of emotion understanding" I discuss how deep nets can be used as cognitive models of emotion perception, prediction, and regulation: doi.org/10.1080/0269... (h/t @ltjaql.bsky.social for the illustrations!)

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scienceartnews.bsky.social @scienceartnews.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

A scoping review of Longitudinal Neuroimaging Studies: -conclusion- Longitudinal fMRI studies of CBIs in healthy participants and clinical populations showed increased prefrontomesolimbic activity, altered occipital and posterior parietal activity, and increased fronto-striatal connectivity. 1/3

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

JOB ALERT 🚀 I am looking for a clinical psychologist to supervise my clinical team at uni hamburg. Please dm me if you have any questions and please share! Ich suche eine Forschungsambulanzleitung (E14, entfristet) an der Uni Hamburg. Job Ad: www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...

uni-hamburg.de

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Incredibly proud that @annimekelburg.bsky.social published her bachelor thesis uniting two of the coolest topics longitudinal neuroimaging and compassion interventions 💫 Check it out 🙌

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

We then decided to explore wether the brain age gap at baseline was also predictive of future worse outcomes, for example, wether a patient is hospitalized or not. However, the cross-validation of our prediction with an accuracy of 64.3% was not significant.

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Patients were consistently estimated with an older brain age resulting in a larger brain age gap than healthy participants, confirming previous results on brain aging. However, we also found that patients with a worse outcome during follow up already had a larger brain age gap at baseline.

media.tenor.com

a lucas and friends sticker with a cartoon character wearing sunglasses

ALT: a lucas and friends sticker with a cartoon character wearing sunglasses

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

... and how the longitudinal course of affective disorder relates to the brain age gap. We found something that we did not expect. 😱

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

We investigated the "brain age gap" - thedifference between actual and estimated age derived from MRI scans - in patients with affective disorders in a long-term prospective design. Our research question was wether the brain age gap differs between patients and healthy participants ....

media.tenor.com

a woman in a purple shirt says age is just a number on netflix

ALT: a woman in a purple shirt says age is just a number on netflix

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

🧠 Excited to share our preprint "MRI derived estimation of biological patients with affective disorders in a 9-year follow up - a prospective marker of future recurrence" with Nils Winter www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... After being under review for <400days we can't wait to share our results.

medrxiv.org

MRI-derived estimation of biological aging in patients with affective disorders in a 9-year follow-up - a prospective marker of future recurrence

Background: We investigated associations of the brain age gap (BAG), the difference between actual and estimated age derived from MRI scans, with disease course over nine years in patients with affect...

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Philipp Kanske @kanske.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Congrats to all #DPK2025 awardees including @annikakonrad.bsky.social @katfoerster.bsky.social Julia Martini & Daniel Badeja from @tudresden.bsky.social for excellent #supervision, #openscience & posters @dgps.bsky.social @kanskelab.bsky.social

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Such a great symposium - Thank you for having me ✨

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Thank you!! Could not have done it without you as my mentor 😊

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Very happy to join the newest class of rising stars 💫⭐️ of @psychscience.bsky.social Thank you @drlambchop.bsky.social Stefan Hofmann @kanske.bsky.social for your your support ✨

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Only one week left to apply ✨🚀

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

🚨 Job Alert 🚨 I am looking for a postdoc for my new lab @uni-hamburg.de, we will closely collaborate with the CRC TRR 393 Trajectories of affective disorders. www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb... DM me if you have questions! Please share ✨

uni-hamburg.de

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

We will continue doing longitudinal studies in young patients with affective disorders, in particular looking at social interaction and emotion processing as key mechanisms of development, maintenance and also familial transmission.

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

It feels like a huge milestone and I could not have done it without the greatest mentors @kanske.bsky.social @juliaasbrand.bsky.social and @alzietlow.bsky.social as well as colleagues @kanskelab.bsky.social @traplabms.bsky.social and friends @konlehmann.bsky.social @laramaliske.bsky.social Thank you

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

I am very excited to share that I‘ll be starting as a junior professor of child and adolescent psychotherapy in april @uni-hamburg.de 🚀 Stay tuned for some job ads ✨

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Christian Webb, PhD @christianwebb.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Anyone know of papers investigating how teens conceptualize happiness (e.g., emphasizing high arousal positive affect etc)? I've seen the below paper done in Spain but was curious about work in the US (or UK, Canada, Australia). thx! @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness - Journal of Happiness Studies

Previous research on children’s and adolescents’ happiness has mainly focused on the different variables that may contribute to it. However, very few studies have investigated the beliefs that childre...

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Wir suchen weiterhin Proband:innen für unsere Studie zu Bipolarer Störung (Angehörige und Patient:innen)! Bei Interesse an einer Teilnahme: redcap.zih.tu-dresden.de/redcap/surve... email: emotionsstudie@tu-dresden.de Gerne teilen! @kanskelab.bsky.social @kanske.bsky.social @dgps.bsky.social

redcap.zih.tu-dresden.de

Für weitere Informationen zu der gesamten Studie lesen Sie gerne die angehängte Studienbeschreibung.

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SANS @sansmeeting.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Joining the club! A social and affective neuroscience starter pack! go.bsky.app/MXAKEYN A very partial list. Let us know if you would like to be added.

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Katharina Förster @katfoerster.bsky.social · 16/09/2024

Meet us tomorrow @dgps.bsky.social in Vienna talking about "Longitudinal dynamics of mental health: Capturing risk factors, resilience processes and mental health trajectories in prospective study designs" with @kanske.bsky.social @clala.bsky.social Charlotte Schenk, Lara Puhlman and Matthias Zerban

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Michael Gaebler @michaelgaebler.com · 30/08/2024

BTW, German skills may be helpful but are not required.

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