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Lukas Gunschera

@lukasgunschera.com
864 followers 464 following 69 posts

PhD Student at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge | Research on mental health, social media, and addiction. lukasgunschera.com

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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 24/07/2026
Does problematic social media use involve the same dopamine-related reward mechanisms as addiction? That’s the question motivating the research I presented at the @bapsych.bsky.social Summer Meeting, involving a dopaminergic manipulation to probe the involved mechanisms. #BAP2026
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 30/04/2026
Also, none of the neurocognitive markers of addiction were associated with scores on the most commonly used self-report measure of social media addiction.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 30/04/2026
What did we find? 1️⃣ No elevated wanting for TikTok vs. Netflix, even in self-identified addicted users. 2️⃣ Wanting-liking dissociation driven by lower enjoyment, therefore inconsistent with incentive sensitisation. 3️⃣ No greater devaluation insensitivity in self-identified addicted users.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 30/04/2026
We ran two preregistered experiments (N=330) to examine three neurocognitive signatures of addiction that are well established in the substance and behavioural addictions, using a computational effort-based decision-making framework. The procedure is illustrated below.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 17/10/2025
Whereas time spent on social media increased with age, it did not relate to preference for immediate rewards. This suggests such tendencies may influence engagement through mechanisms beyond time spent—such as differences in how platforms are used or experienced.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 17/10/2025
Adolescents with a stronger preference for immediate rewards showed greater declines in behavioural activation (motivation to pursue goals or pleasurable experiences) as social media use increased. This vulnerability was stable over time but not seen across other indicators of mental health.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 17/10/2025
Most research focuses on demographic differences (e.g. age, gender), which provide a lens for examining population differences. We propose that differences span hierarchical levels - where nuanced cognitive processes may yield deeper insight into individual risk and resilience. See schematic below.
Schematic diagram maps out the hierarchical and interconnected nature of the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. We present a simplified subset of relevant variables to illustrate the framework. In reality, the hierarchical structure encompasses many more macro-level factors, each underpinned by multiple meso-level processes, which in turn are implemented through numerous micro-level neural mechanisms. The strength of the connections is not based on data and is solely illustrative of how different factors may differentially relate to factors on other levels.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 26/09/2025
Grateful to @rcpsych.bsky.social for the opportunity to present my research on “Rethinking social media addiction” and participate in the panel discussion. Looking forward to translating the insights into the clinical-focused work in the pipeline.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 15/07/2025
Brilliant work by @saramehrhof.bsky.social on shared neurocognitive signatures of psychiatric and metabolic disorder at #cpconf2025
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 14/06/2024
It was a pleasure visiting @_MAchterberg @EACrone @SYNClabEUR in Rotterdam! I’m grateful for all the insights and excited to continue our collaboration looking at cognitive factors of risk and resilience for social media and mental health.
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 05/03/2024
Great conference on the “promises and pitfalls of preregistration” at the Royal Society!
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 13/03/2023
Big thank you to the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) for the thesis award and an awesome conference!!
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Lukas Gunschera @lukasgunschera.com · 19/09/2022
New 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 ✎ Is psychopathy rooted in an information integration deficit? We examine this question in our new preprint with B. Verschuere, @RobinofOxford, A.T. McCune, @TheRealDrKev, @profelainefox.
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