Author name cluster

Veit Roessner

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

15 papers

1 author row

YNICL Journal 2026 Journal Article

Altered neural oscillatory dynamics underlie reduced anticipatory schema use during event segmentation in adolescents with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum disorder

Ronja Limburg
Michel Benjamin Kopp
Xianzhen Zhou
Foroogh Ghorbani
Veit Roessner
Bernhard Hommel
Christian Beste
Astrid Prochnow

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by diverse symptoms that may stem from atypical integration of sensory information and prediction processes. Event Segmentation Theory (EST) offers a framework to examine how individuals parse continuous experience into meaningful units. This study investigated whether altered event segmentation in adolescents with ASD arises from atypical neural oscillatory dynamics underlying prediction and updating processes. Behaviorally, adolescents with ASD showed a weaker adaption of segmentation behavior to the occurrence of situational changes than neurotypical participants, particularly in response to small spatial changes. Neurophysiologically, both groups exhibited alpha and beta power reductions at event boundaries, but these modulations were less extensive and more localized in ASD. Source-level theta modulations before boundaries were only present in ASD, suggesting increased reliance on error monitoring rather than event schema access. Adolescents with ASD show reduced event segmentation in response to contextual changes accompanied by altered alpha, beta and theta oscillatory dynamics, indicative of reduced schema-based integration, inflexible updating of event representations and heightened conflict monitoring. These findings highlight event segmentation as a potential cognitive mechanism contributing to broader ASD symptomatology.

YNIMG Journal 2026 Journal Article

Standardizing EEG preprocessing for cross-site integration - the CLEAN pipeline

Adriana Böttcher
Paul Wendiggensen
Moritz Mückschel
Sven Hoffmann
Claudia Buss
Michael Kölch
Inga Körte
Shu-Chen Li

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a powerful tool for investigating neural processes underlying cognition and neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, variability in EEG preprocessing strategies restricts reproducibility and data integration across study sites and laboratories, particularly in larger research consortia. This paper introduces the CLEAN-EEG preprocessing pipeline, designed to standardize data processing and documentation across multiple sites. The CLEAN pipeline is implemented in MATLAB using EEGLAB. It comprises three modular, script-based stages: main preprocessing (including down-sampling, filtering, line noise removal, and channel interpolation), independent component analysis preparation and decomposition with flexible options for artifact rejection or neural component extraction, and component exclusion with support for automated classification and dipole fitting. Emphasis is placed on transparency through comprehensive logging and quality-control plotting, as well as on minimizing rank reduction to preserve data suitability for advanced analyses such as source localization and connectivity modeling. By providing clear, adaptable recommendations while ensuring detailed documentation of every step, the CLEAN pipeline aims to harmonize EEG preprocessing in large-scale, multi-center studies. This open and reproducible approach facilitates high throughput analyses, supports the training of researchers, and enables the rigorous integration of neurophysiological data across study sites, study designs, and populations.

YNICL Journal 2026 Journal Article

Theta–Alpha Dysregulation reveals impaired endogenous cognitive control in adolescent Obsessive–Compulsive disorder

Sarah Rempel
Adriana Böttcher
Nicole Beyer
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by rigid thoughts and behaviors that may compromise cognitive flexibility, yet, especially in adolescence results are inconclusive. This is all the more the case concerning the question whether flexibility deficits emerge specifically when endogenous control, internal monitoring, and working-memory-dependent task-set management are required. In an EEG-beamforming study, we examined adolescents with OCD (N = 68) and healthy controls (HC) (N = 73) in a task-switching paradigm with cue-based (exogenous, externally guided) and memory-based (endogenous, internally guided). Behaviorally, both groups showed typical switch-cost patterns, with greater demands in the memory-based block, and no group differences in switch costs. Oscillatory EEG data revealed marked group differences. During cue-based switching, both groups showed preserved pre-target TBA and ABA modulations in frontal-parietal networks, indicating intact externally preparatory control. In contrast, only HC adolescents showed pre-target TBA increases during memory-based switching, suggesting impaired endogenous task-set updating in OCD. Reactive processes further distinguished groups. In the cue-based block, adolescents with OCD showed switch-related ABA reductions in centro-parietal regions, possibly reflecting inefficient task-set stabilization despite intact behavior. In the memory-based block, HCs displayed coordinated TBA-ABA differentiation supporting internally generated updating, whereas the OCD group showed isolated TBA modulation without accompanying ABA effects, indicating disrupted integration of updating and gating mechanisms. Together, these findings show a dissociation between externally and internally guided flexibility in adolescent OCD.

YNICL Journal 2025 Journal Article

Evidence for temporal disintegration of information processing during sensorimotor integration in GTS

Yifan Hao
Paul Wendiggensen
Annet Bluschke
Tina Rawish
Julia Friedrich
Eszter Tóth-Fáber
Zsanett Tárnok
Veit Roessner

In Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS), a neuropsychiatric disorder defined by the presence of tics, bindings of perceptual and motor processes in what cognitive theories refer to as event files is altered. The neural basis of such abnormal coupling though is currently unclear, particularly as regards oscillatory activity in theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands. The inter-relation between oscillatory activities in the theta, but also the alpha and beta band during event file binding and retrieval was investigated in the present study in patients with GTS and healthy controls (HC) using a well-established stimulus-response event file task and concomitant EEG recording. Behaviorally, binding effects did not differ between groups. Also, there were well-known patterns of theta, alpha and beta band activity during retrieval in both groups. In addition, corroborating previous findings in HC, in the period after event file binding and before retrieval, theta, alpha and beta band activity was found in the insula cortex, inferior/middle frontal and superior/middle temporal areas of the right hemisphere in both groups. However, in comparison to HC, GTS patients exhibited relatively less widespread oscillatory correlations between the post-binding and retrieval periods. Notably, a correlation between beta-band oscillations in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and oscillatory activity during the post-binding period was observed only in HC, but not in GTS. This absence in GTS may reflect a disrupted management of event files following retrieval. Overall, the findings suggest a relative decoupling of oscillatory activity associated with binding and retrieval processes in individuals with GTS.

YNIMG Journal 2024 Journal Article

Interactions of catecholamines and GABA+ in cognitive control: Insights from EEG and 1H-MRS

Anna Helin Koyun
Nasibeh Talebi
Annett Werner
Paul Wendiggensen
Paul Kuntke
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste
Ann-Kathrin Stock

H-MRS), we investigated the effect of different degrees of pharmacological catecholaminergic enhancement onto theta band activity (TBA) as a measure of interference control during response inhibition and execution. It was central to our study to evaluate the predictive impact of in-vivo baseline GABA+ concentrations in the striatum, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the supplemental motor area (SMA) of healthy adults under varying degrees of methylphenidate (MPH) stimulation. We provide evidence for a predictive interrelation of baseline GABA+ concentrations in cognitive control relevant brain areas onto task-induced TBA during response control stimulated with MPH. Baseline GABA+ concentrations in the ACC, the striatum, and the SMA had a differential impact on predicting interference control-related TBA in response execution trials. GABA+ concentrations in the ACC appeared to be specifically important for TBA modulations when the cognitive effort needed for interference control was high - that is when no prior task experience exists, or in the absence of catecholaminergic enhancement with MPH. The study highlights the predictive role of baseline GABA+ concentrations in key brain areas influencing cognitive control and responsiveness to catecholaminergic enhancement, particularly in high-effort scenarios.

YNIMG Journal 2022 Journal Article

What makes somatosensory short-term memory maintenance effective? An EEG study comparing contralateral delay activity between sighted participants and participants who are blind

Eva Breitinger
Lena Pokorny
Lea Biermann
Tomasz A. Jarczok
Neil M. Dundon
Veit Roessner
Stephan Bender

Somatosensory short-term memory is essential for object recognition, sensorimotor learning, and, especially, Braille reading for people who are blind. This study examined how visual sensory deprivation and a compensatory focus on somatosensory information influences memory processes in this domain. We measured slow cortical negativity developing during short-term tactile memory maintenance (tactile contralateral delay activity, tCDA) in frontal and somatosensory areas while a sample of 24 sighted participants and 22 participants who are blind completed a tactile change-detection task where varying loads of Braille pin patterns served as stimuli. Auditory cues, appearing at varying latencies between sample arrays, could be used to reduce memory demands during maintenance. Participants who are blind (trained Braille readers) outperformed sighted participants behaviorally. In addition, while task-related frontal activation featured in both groups, participants who are blind uniquely showed higher tCDA amplitudes specifically over somatosensory areas. The site specificity of this component's functional relevance in short-term memory maintenance was further supported by somatosensory tCDA amplitudes first correlating across the whole sample with behavioral performance, and secondly showing sensitivity to varying memory load. The results substantiate sensory recruitment models and provide new insights into the effects of visual sensory deprivation on tactile processing. Between-group differences in the interplay between frontal and somatosensory areas during somatosensory maintenance also suggest that efficient maintenance of complex tactile stimuli in short-term memory is primarily facilitated by lateralized activity in somatosensory cortex.

YNICL Journal 2021 Journal Article

The dynamics of theta-related pro-active control and response inhibition processes in AD(H)D

Nico Adelhöfer
Annet Bluschke
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Impulsivity and deficits in response inhibition are hallmarks of attention-deficit(-hyperactivity) disorder (AD(H)D), can cause severe problems in daily functioning, and are thus of high clinical relevance. Traditionally, research to elucidate associated neural correlates has intensively, but also quite selectively examined mechanisms during response inhibition in various tasks. Doing so, in-between trial periods or periods prior to the response inhibition process, where no information relevant to inhibitory control is presented, have been neglected. Yet, these periods may nevertheless reveal relevant information. In the present study, using a case-control cross-sectional design, we take a more holistic approach, examining the inter-relation of pre-trial and within-trial periods in a Go/Nogo task with a focus on EEG theta band activity. Applying EEG beamforming methods, we show that the dynamics between pre-trial (pro-active) and within-trial (inhibition-related) control processes significantly differ between AD(H)D subtypes. We show that response inhibition, and differences between AD(H)D subtypes, exhibit distinct patterns of (at least) three factors: (i) strength of pre-trial (pro-active control) theta-band activity, (ii) the inter-relation of pro-active control and inhibition-relation theta band activity and (iii) the functional neuroanatomical region active during theta-related pro-active control processes. This multi-factorial pattern is captured by AD(H)D subtype clinical symptom clusters. The study provides a first hint that novel cognitive-neurophysiological facets of AD(H)D may be relevant to distinguish AD(H)D subtypes.

YNICL Journal 2019 Journal Article

Paradoxical response inhibition advantages in adolescent obsessive compulsive disorder result from the interplay of automatic and controlled processes

Nicole Wolff
Witold Chmielewski
Judith Buse
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Response inhibition deficits have often been described in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Yet, research on response inhibition in OCD focusses on "top-down" controlled mechanisms, and it has been neglected that response inhibition performance depends on the interplay of controlled and automatic processes during response selection. Based on pathophysiological considerations we test the counterintuitive hypothesis that OCD patients show superior inhibitory control when automatic mechanisms govern processes involved in response inhibition. We examined a group of adolescent OCD patients (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 27) using a combined Simon-Go/NoGo task. This task is able to examine conjoint effects of automatic and controlled processes during response inhibition. EEG and source localization analyses were applied to examine the underlying neural mechanisms. OCD patients committed fewer false alarms than healthy controls (HC) in the congruent Simon-NoGo condition, which is dominated by automatic response selection mechanisms. On a neurophysiological (EEG) level, these effects were reflected by intensified correlates of 'braking' processes associated with modulation of right inferior prefrontal regions. There is no general response inhibition deficit in adolescent OCD. When considering conjoint effects of automatic and controlled processes during the inhibition of responses paradoxical response inhibition advantages can emerge in OCD. This is likely a result of otherwise pathological fronto-striatal hyperactivity and loss of a situation-specific modulation of response selection mechanisms in OCD.

YNICL Journal 2018 Journal Article

A comparative study on the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying effects of methylphenidate and neurofeedback on inhibitory control in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Annet Bluschke
Julia Friedrich
Marie Luise Schreiter
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

In Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD(H)D), treatments using methylphenidate (MPH) and behavioral interventions like neurofeedback (NF) reflect major therapeutic options. These treatments also ameliorate executive dysfunctions in AD(H)D. However, the mechanisms underlying effects of MPH and NF on executive functions in AD(H)D (e.g. the ability to inhibit prepotent responses) are far from understood. It is particularly unclear whether these interventions affect similar or dissociable neural mechanisms and associated functional neuroanatomical structures. This, however, is important when aiming to further improve these treatments. We compared the neurophysiological mechanisms of MPH and theta/beta NF treatments on inhibitory control on the basis of EEG recordings and source localization analyses. The data show that MPH and theta/beta NF both increase the ability to inhibit pre-potent responses to a similar extent. However, the data suggest that MPH and NF target different neurophysiological mechanisms, especially when it comes to functional neuroanatomical structures associated with these effects. Both treatments seem to affect neurophysiological correlates of a 'braking function' in medial frontal areas. However, in case of the NF intervention, inferior parietal areas are also involved. This likely reflects the updating and stabilisation of efficient internal representations in order to initiate appropriate actions. No effects were seen in correlates of perceptual and attentional selection processes. Notably, reliable effects were only obtained after accounting for intra-individual variability in the neurophysiological data, which may also explain the diversity of findings in studies on treatment effects in AD(H)D, especially concerning neurofeedback.

YNICL Journal 2018 Journal Article

Effects of multisensory stimuli on inhibitory control in adolescent ADHD: It is the content of information that matters

Witold X. Chmielewski
Angela Tiedt
Annet Bluschke
Gabriel Dippel
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Even though deficits in inhibitory control and conflict monitoring are well-known in ADHD, factors that further modulate these functions remain to be elucidated. One factor that may be of considerable importance is how inhibitory control is modulated by multisensory information processing. We examined the influence of concurrent auditory conflicting or redundant information on visually triggered response inhibition processes in adolescent ADHD patients and healthy controls. We combined high-density event-related potential (ERP) recordings with source localization to delineate the functional neuroanatomical basis of the involved neurophysiological processes. In comparison to controls, response inhibition (RI) processes in ADHD were compromised in conflicting conditions, but showed no differences to controls when redundant or no concurrent auditory information was presented. These effects were reflected by modulations at the response selection stage (P3 ERP) in the medial frontal gyrus (BA32), but not at the attentional selection (P1, N1 ERPs) or resource allocation level (P2 ERP). Conflicting information during RI exerts its influences in adolescent ADHD via response selection mechanisms, but not via attentional selection. It is not the mere presence of concurrent information, but the presence of conflicting information during RI that may destabilize goal shielding processes in medial frontal cortical regions, by means of increasing the automaticity of response tendencies. The occurring RI deficits might relate to the increased impulsivity in adolescent ADHD and a corresponding vulnerability to react to an increased automaticity of pre-potent response tendencies. ADHD patients show a bias to a specific content of information which can modulate inhibitory control.

YNICL Journal 2018 Journal Article

Neural mechanisms underlying successful and deficient multi-component behavior in early adolescent ADHD

Annet Bluschke
Krutika Gohil
Maxi Petzold
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder affecting cognitive control. These functions are important to achieve goals when different actions need to be executed in close succession. This type of multi-component behavior, which often further requires the processing of information from different modalities, is important for everyday activities. Yet, possible changes in neurophysiological mechanisms have not been investigated in adolescent ADHD. We examined N = 31 adolescent ADHD patients and N = 35 healthy controls (HC) in two Stop-Change experiments using either uni-modal or bi-modal stimuli to trigger stop and change processes. These stimuli were either presented together (SCD0) or in close succession of 300 milliseconds (SCD300). Using event-related potentials (ERP), EEG data decomposition and source localization we analyzed neural processes and functional neuroanatomical correlates of multicomponent behavior. Compared to HCs, ADHD patients had longer reaction times and higher error rates when Stop and Change stimuli were presented in close succession (SCD300), but not when presented together (SCD0). This effect was evident in the uni-modal and bi-modal experiment and is reflected by neurophysiological processes reflecting response selection mechanisms in the inferior parietal cortex (BA40). These processes were only detectable after accounting for intra-individual variability in neurophysiological data; i.e. there were no effects in standard ERPs. Multi-component behavior is not always deficient in ADHD. Rather, modulations in multi-component behavior depend on a critical temporal integration window during response selection which is associated with functioning of the inferior parietal cortex. This window is smaller than in HCs and independent of the complexity of sensory input.

YNICL Journal 2018 Journal Article

Processing and regulation of negative emotions in anorexia nervosa: An fMRI study

Maria Seidel
Joseph A. King
Franziska Ritschel
Ilka Boehm
Daniel Geisler
Fabio Bernardoni
Matthias Beck
Sophie Pauligk

Theoretical models and recent advances in the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN) have increasingly focused on the role of alterations in the processing and regulation of emotions. To date, however, our understanding of these changes is still limited and reports of emotional dysregulation in AN have been based largely on self-report data, and there is a relative lack of objective experimental evidence or neurobiological data. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the hemodynamic correlates of passive viewing and voluntary downregulation of negative emotions by means of the reappraisal strategy detachment in AN patients. Detachment is regarded as adaptive regulation strategy associated with a reduction in emotion-related amygdala activity and increased recruitment of prefrontal brain regions associated with cognitive control processes. Emotion regulation efficacy was assessed via behavioral arousal ratings and fMRI activation elicited by an established experimental paradigm including negative images. Participants were instructed to either simply view emotional pictures or detach themselves from feelings triggered by the stimuli. The sample consisted of 36 predominantly adolescent female AN patients and a pairwise age-matched healthy control group. Behavioral and neuroimaging data analyses indicated a reduction of arousal and amygdala activity during the regulation condition for both patients and controls. However, compared with controls, individuals with AN showed increased activation in the amygdala as well as in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during the passive viewing of aversive compared with neutral pictures. These results extend previous findings indicative of altered processing of salient emotional stimuli in AN, but do not point to a general deficit in the voluntary regulation of negative emotions. Increased dlPFC activation in AN during passive viewing of negative stimuli is in line with the hypothesis that the disorder may be characterized by excessive self-control. Taken together, the data seem to suggest that reappraisal via detachment may be an effective strategy to reduce negative arousal for individuals with AN.

YNICL Journal 2017 Journal Article

Conflict processing in juvenile patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and healthy controls – Two pathways to success

Annet Bluschke
Maja von der Hagen
Katharina Papenhagen
Veit Roessner
Christian Beste

Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a monogenetic autosomal-dominant disorder with a broad spectrum of clinical symptoms and is commonly associated with cognitive deficits. Patients with NF1 frequently exhibit cognitive impairments like attention problems, working memory deficits and dysfunctional inhibitory control. The latter is also relevant for the resolution of cognitive conflicts. However, it is unclear how conflict monitoring processes are modulated in NF1. To examine this question in more detail, we used a system neurophysiological approach combining high-density ERP recordings with source localisation analyses in juvenile patients with NF1 and controls during a flanker task. Behaviourally, patients with NF1 perform significantly slower than controls. Specifically on trials with incompatible flanker-target pairings, however, the patients with NF1 made significantly fewer errors than healthy controls. Yet, importantly, this overall successful conflict resolution was reached via two different routes in the two groups. The healthy controls seem to arrive at a successful conflict monitoring performance through a developing conflict recognition via the N2 accompanied by a selectively enhanced N450 activation in the case of perceived flanker-target conflicts. The presumed dopamine deficiency in the patients with NF1 seems to result in a reduced ability to process conflicts via the N2. However, NF1 patients show an increased N450 irrespective of cognitive conflict. Activation differences in the orbitofrontal cortex (BA11) and anterior cingulate cortex (BA24) underlie these modulations. Taken together, juvenile patients with NF1 and juvenile healthy controls seem to accomplish conflict monitoring via two different cognitive neurophysiological pathways.

YNICL Journal 2016 Journal Article

Neural correlates of processing harmonic expectancy violations in children and adolescents with OCD

Judith Buse
Veit Roessner

It has been suggested that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit enhanced awareness of embedded stimulus patterns as well as enhanced allocation of attention towards unexpected stimuli. Our study aimed at investigating these OCD characteristics by running the harmonic expectancy violation paradigm in 21 boys with OCD and 29 healthy controls matched for age, gender and IQ during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. Each trial consisted of a chord sequence in which the first four chords induced a strong expectancy for a harmonic chord at the next position. In 70% of the trials the fifth chord fulfilled this expectancy (harmonic condition), while in 30% the expectancy was violated (disharmonic condition). Overall, the harmonic condition elicited blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) activation in the auditory cortex, while during the disharmonic condition the precuneus, the auditory cortex, the medial frontal gyrus, the premotor cortex, the lingual gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus were activated. In a cluster extending from the right superior temporal gyrus to the inferior frontal gyrus, boys with OCD exhibited increased activation compared to healthy controls in the harmonic condition and decreased activation in the disharmonic condition. Our findings might indicate that patients with OCD are excessively engaged in processing the implicit structure embedded in music stimuli, but they speak against the suggestion that OCD is associated with a misallocation of attention towards the processing of unexpected stimuli.

YNIMG Journal 2016 Journal Article

Weight restoration therapy rapidly reverses cortical thinning in anorexia nervosa: A longitudinal study

Fabio Bernardoni
Joseph A. King
Daniel Geisler
Elisa Stein
Charlotte Jaite
Dagmar Nätsch
Friederike I. Tam
Ilka Boehm

Structural magnetic resonance imaging studies have documented reduced gray matter in acutely ill patients with anorexia nervosa to be at least partially reversible following weight restoration. However, few longitudinal studies exist and the underlying mechanisms of these structural changes are elusive. In particular, the relative speed and completeness of brain structure normalization during realimentation remain unknown. Here we report from a structural neuroimaging study including a sample of adolescent/young adult female patients with acute anorexia nervosa (n=47), long-term recovered patients (n=34), and healthy controls (n=75). The majority of acutely ill patients were scanned longitudinally (n=35): at the beginning of standardized weight restoration therapy and again after partial weight normalization (>10% body mass index increase). High-resolution structural images were processed and analyzed with the longitudinal stream of FreeSurfer software to test for changes in cortical thickness and volumes of select subcortical regions of interest. We found globally reduced cortical thickness in acutely ill patients to increase rapidly (0. 06mm/month) during brief weight restoration therapy (≈3months). This significant increase was predicted by weight restoration alone and could not be ascribed to potentially mediating factors such as duration of illness, hydration status, or symptom improvements. By comparing cortical thickness in partially weight-restored patients with that measured in healthy controls, we confirmed that cortical thickness had normalized already at follow-up. This pattern of thinning in illness and rapid normalization during weight rehabilitation was largely mirrored in subcortical volumes. Together, our findings indicate that structural brain insults inflicted by starvation in anorexia nervosa may be reversed at a rate much faster than previously thought if interventions are successful before the disorder becomes chronic. This provides evidence drawing previously speculated mechanisms such as (de-)hydration and neurogenesis into question and suggests that neuronal and/or glial remodeling including changes in macromolecular content may underlie the gray matter alterations observed in anorexia nervosa.