Brain Icon DNHI Lab

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Key Reviews (since 2021)

Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Korn, C. W. (2023). Linearly-additive decomposed 2 × 2 games: A primer for research. Collabra: Psychology, 9(1). Link

Rosenblau, G., Frolichs, K., & Korn, C. W. (2023). A neuro-computational social learning framework to facilitate transdiagnostic classification and treatment across psychiatric disorders. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 149, 105181. Link

Key Publications (since 2021)

Doppelhofer, L. M., Perla, R., Frolichs, K. M. M., Rosenblau, G., Herpertz, S. C., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Estimating and learning personality traits of and from women with borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, in print. Link

Doppelhofer, L. M., Loloff, J., Neukel, C., Herpertz, S. C., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Cooperative decision-making in borderline personality disorder: Insights from a preregistered study using a comprehensive economic task battery. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 12(1), 24. Link

Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Loss avoidance during social interactions. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 114. Link

Kube, T., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Induced negative affect hinders self-referential belief updating in response to social feedback. Emotion, 25(1), 174–185. Link

Kuper-Smith, B. J., Voulgaris, A., Briken, P., Fuss, J., & Korn, C. W. (2024). Social preferences and psychopathy in a sample of male prisoners: A pilot study. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 8344. Link

Frolichs, K. M. M., Rosenblau, G., & Korn, C. W. (2022). Incorporating social knowledge structures into computational models. Nature Communications, 13(1), 6205. Link

Doppelhofer, L. M., Hurlemann, R., Bach, D. R., & Korn, C. W. (2021). Social motives in a patient with bilateral selective amygdala lesions: Shift in prosocial motivation but not in social value orientation. Neuropsychologia, 162, 108016. Link

Kuper-Smith, B. J., Doppelhofer, L. M., Oganian, Y., Rosenblau, G., & Korn, C. W. (2021). Risk perception and optimism during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Royal Society Open Science, 8(11), 210904. Link

Preprints

Zhang, S., Blank, H., Terzidis, I., Rosenblau, G., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Pupil dilation reflects prediction errors in learning about others' personality traits. Preprint & submitted. Link

Liu, J., Oganian, Y., Wagner, V., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Does the option to be neutral alter the framing effect? Preprint. Link

Zhang, S., Xue, Y., Ma, Y., & Korn, C. W. (2025). The self-allocation bias: Behavioral and neural characterization of a newly identified bias for individual performance and contribution in cooperative tasks. Preprint & submitted. Link

Kammler-Säcker, K. I., Burghardt, M., Mohr, M., Zhang, S., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Virtual grid aggression tasks reveal intention-dependent cooperation and affective responses to digital agents. Preprint. Link

Schnitzler, T., Perla, R., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Whole-body synchronization in autistic adults. Preprint & submitted. Link

Cahalan, S., Block, S. H., Loughlin, M., Perla, R., Korn, C. W., & Rosenblau, G. (2025). Rethinking the double empathy problem: Modeling how autistic and non-autistic groups learn about their own and each other's preferences. Preprint & submitted. Link

Czekalla, N., Schroder, A., Mayer, A. V., Stierand, J., Stolz, D. S., Kube, T., Korn, C. W., Wilhelm-Groch, I., Klein, J., Paulus, F. M., Krach, S., & Muller-Pinzler, L. (2025). Aberrant insula activity to negative and reduced learning from positive prediction errors as mechanisms underlying maladaptive self-belief formation in depression. Preprint & submitted. Link

Golowin, S., Duncan, N. W., Shaikh, F., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Humans employ more sophisticated decision policies when threat is higher in approach-avoidance conflicts. Preprint & submitted. Link

Garcia-Arch, J., Kube, T., Fuentemilla, L., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Self-utility distance predicts perceived stress and affective vulnerability. Preprint & submitted. Link

Shlobin, N. A., Beestrum, M., Soutschek, A., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Cognitive biases in physician decision-making: A systematic review. Preprint & submitted. Link

Hu, X., García-Arch, J., Zhang, S., & Korn, C. W. (2025b). Imagined self-related feedback elicits positively biased processing. Preprint & submitted. Link

Guennouni, I., Korn, C. W.*, & Koppe, G.* (2025). The price of dark traits: Strategic exploitation and its limitations in repeated trust games. Preprint & submitted. Link

Guennouni, I., Koppe, G.*, & Korn, C. W.* (2025). When forgiveness backfires: Rejection sensitivity and cooperative behavior following exposure to adaptive forgiving agents. Preprint & submitted. Link

Korn, C. W., Kerzel, M., Redžepović, S., Barros, P., Heinrich, S., Wermter, S., & Gläscher, J. (2021). Cross-modal emotion recognition: How similar are patterns between DNNs and human fMRI data? Brain2AI@ICLR2021 conference proceedings. Link

Reviews

Liu, S., Behrens, S. C., Besteher, B., Bilek, E., Chae, W. R., Clemens, V., Korn, C. W., Pflug, V., Richter, A., Selle, J., O'Sullivan, J. L., von Brachel, R., Totzeck, C., & Brandhorst, I. (2024). Structures, aims and needs of early career scientists at the German Center for Mental Health. Nervenarzt, 95(5), 467–473. Link

Flechsenhar, A., Kanske, P., Krach, S., Korn, C. W., & Bertsch, K. (2022). The (un)learning of social functions and its significance for mental health. Clinical Psychology Review, 98, 102204. Link

Korn, C. W., & Wolf, R. C. (2021). Negative valence systems in the system of research domain criteria: Empirical results and new developments. Nervenarzt, 92(9), 868–877. Link

Bach, D. R., Castegnetti, G., Korn, C. W., Gerster, S., Melinscak, F., & Moser, T. (2018). Psychophysiological modeling: Current state and future directions. Psychophysiology, 55(11), e13214. Link

Rusch, T., Korn, C. W., & Gläscher, J. (2017). A two-way street between attention and learning. Neuron, 93(2), 256–258. Link

Publications

Schroder, A., Czekalla, N., Mayer, A. V., Zhang, L., Stolz, D. S., Korn, C. W., Diekelmann, S., Luebber, F., Paulus, F. M., Muller-Pinzler, L., & Krach, S. (2025). Initial expectations and confidence affect the formation of novel self-beliefs and their revision. Open Mind (Cambridge), 9, 1576–1596. Link

Garcia-Arch, J., Sabio-Albert, M., Korn, C. W., & Fuentemilla, L. (2025). How the self-concept structures social role learning: Insights from computational models. Royal Society Open Science, 12(9), 250590. Link

Seitz, K. I., Schouler, N., Hundertmark, J., Wilhelm, M., Franz, S., Bauer, S., Taubner, S., Korn, C. W., Haun, M. W., Ditzen, B., Zimmermann, H., Enning, F., Vonderlin, R., Schmahl, C., Schramm, E., Aguilar-Raab, C., Vonderlin, E., Bailer, J., Bopp, E., & Herpertz, S. C. (2025). Mechanism-based modular psychotherapy versus cognitive behavioural therapy for adolescents and young adults with childhood trauma experiences: Study protocol for a feasibility trial within the German Center for Mental Health. BMJ Open, 15(4), e090476. Link

Liu, W., Mark, I., Korn, C. W., & Rosenblau, G. (2025). Social context matters: Characterizing adolescent cooperation strategies when perceiving the other as a peer versus computer partner. Journal of Adolescence. Link

Garcia-Arch, J., Korn, C. W., & Fuentemilla, L. (2025). Self-utility distance as a computational approach to understanding self-concept clarity. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 50. Link

Mueller, M., Korn, C. W., & Haaker, J. (2025). The effect of nicotine on threat avoidance behaviour in healthy non-smokers. Psychopharmacology, 242(9), 2111–2121. Link

Becker, J., Korn, C. W., & Blank, H. (2024). Pupil diameter as an indicator of sound pair familiarity after statistically structured auditory sequence. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 8739. Link

Becker, J., Viertler, M., Korn, C. W., & Blank, H. (2024). The pupil dilation response as an indicator of visual cue uncertainty and auditory outcome surprise. European Journal of Neuroscience, 59(10), 2686–2701. Link

Schnitzler, T., Korn, C. W., S, C. H., & Fuchs, T. (2024). Emotion recognition in autism spectrum condition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Autism, 28(7), 1690–1702. Link

Abivardi, A., Korn, C. W., Rojkov, I., Gerster, S., Hurlemann, R., & Bach, D. R. (2023). Acceleration of inferred neural responses to oddball targets in an individual with bilateral amygdala lesion compared to healthy controls. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 14550. Link

Rosenblau, G., Korn, C. W., Dutton, A., Lee, D., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2021). Neurocognitive mechanisms of social inferences in typical and autistic adolescents. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6(8), 782–791. Link

Esser, R., Korn, C. W., Ganzer, F., & Haaker, J. (2021). L-dopa modulates activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and ventral tegmental area during threat extinction learning in humans. eLife, 10. Link

Korn, C. W., & Bach, D. R. (2019). Minimizing threat via heuristic and optimal policies recruits hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(7), 733–745. Link

Oganian, Y., Heekeren, H. R., & Korn, C. W. (2019). Low foreign language proficiency reduces optimism about the personal future. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(1), 60–75. Link

Korn, C. W., Heekeren, H. R., & Oganian, Y. (2019). The framing effect in a monetary gambling task is robust in minimally verbal language switching contexts. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(1), 52–59. Link

Bach, D. R., Korn, C. W., Vunder, J., & Bantel, A. (2018). Effect of valproate and pregabalin on human anxiety-like behaviour in a randomised controlled trial. Translational Psychiatry, 8(1), 157. Link

Rosenblau, G., Korn, C. W., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2018). A computational account of optimizing social predictions reveals that adolescents are conservative learners in social contexts. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(4), 974–988. Link

Tzovara, A., Korn, C. W., & Bach, D. R. (2018). Human Pavlovian fear conditioning conforms to probabilistic learning. PLoS Computational Biology, 14(8), e1006243. Link

Korn, C. W., Ries, J., Schalk, L., Oganian, Y., & Saalbach, H. (2018). A hard-to-read font reduces the framing effect in a large sample. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(2), 696–703. Link

Korn, C. W., & Bach, D. R. (2018). Heuristic and optimal policy computations in the human brain during sequential decision-making. Nature Communications, 9(1), 325. Link

Jeung, H., Walther, S., Korn, C. W., Bertsch, K., & Herpertz, S. C. (2018). Emotional responses to receiving peer feedback on opinions in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 9(6), 595–600. Link

Korn, C. W., Vunder, J., Miro, J., Fuentemilla, L., Hurlemann, R., & Bach, D. R. (2017). Amygdala lesions reduce anxiety-like behavior in a human benzodiazepine-sensitive approach-avoidance conflict test. Biological Psychiatry, 82(7), 522–531. Link

Korn, C. W., Staib, M., Tzovara, A., Castegnetti, G., & Bach, D. R. (2017). A pupil size response model to assess fear learning. Psychophysiology, 54(3), 330–343. Link

Oganian, Y.*, Korn, C. W.*, & Heekeren, H. R. (2016). Language switching—but not foreign language use per se—reduces the framing effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(1), 140–148. Link

Korn, C. W., & Bach, D. R. (2016). A solid frame for the window on cognition: Modeling event-related pupil responses. Journal of Vision, 16(3), 28. Link

Korn, C. W.*, Rosenblau, G.*, Rodriguez Buritica, J. M., & Heekeren, H. R. (2016). Performance feedback processing is positively biased as predicted by attribution theory. PLoS ONE, 11(2), e0148581. Link

Korn, C. W., La Rosée, L., Heekeren, H. R., & Roepke, S. (2016a). Social feedback processing in borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine, 46(3), 575–587. Link

Korn, C. W., La Rosée, L., Heekeren, H. R., & Roepke, S. (2016b). Processing of information about future life events in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 246, 719–724. Link

Korn, C. W., & Bach, D. R. (2015). Maintaining homeostasis by decision-making. PLoS Computational Biology, 11(5), e1004301. Link

Prehn, K.*, Korn, C. W.*, Bajbouj, M., Klann-Delius, G., Menninghaus, W., Jacobs, A. M., & Heekeren, H. R. (2015). The neural correlates of emotion alignment in social interaction. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(3), 435–443. Link

Korn, C. W.*, Sharot, T.*, Walter, H., Heekeren, H. R., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). Depression is related to an absence of optimistically biased belief updating about future life events. Psychological Medicine, 44(3), 579–592. Link

Garrett, N., Sharot, T., Faulkner, P., Korn, C. W., Roiser, J. P., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). Losing the rose tinted glasses: Neural substrates of unbiased belief updating in depression. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 639. Link

Korn, C. W., Fan, Y., Zhang, K., Wang, C., Han, S., & Heekeren, H. R. (2014). Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 192. Link

Castro, L. R., Brito, M., Guiot, E., Polito, M., Korn, C. W., Herve, D., Girault, J. A., Paupardin-Tritsch, D., & Vincent, P. (2013). Striatal neurones have a specific ability to respond to phasic dopamine release. The Journal of Physiology, 591(13), 3197–3214. Link

Meshi, D., Biele, G., Korn, C. W., & Heekeren, H. R. (2012). How expert advice influences decision making. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e49748. Link

Korn, C. W., Prehn, K., Park, S. Q., Walter, H., & Heekeren, H. R. (2012). Positively biased processing of self-relevant social feedback. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(47), 16832–16844. Link

Sharot, T., Guitart-Masip, M., Korn, C. W., Chowdhury, R., & Dolan, R. J. (2012). How dopamine enhances an optimism bias in humans. Current Biology, 22(16), 1477–1481. Link

Sharot, T., Kanai, R., Marston, D., Korn, C. W., Rees, G., & Dolan, R. J. (2012). Selectively altering belief formation in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 109(42), 17058–17062. Link

Sharot, T.*, Korn, C. W.*, & Dolan, R. J. (2011). How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality. Nature Neuroscience, 14(11), 1475–1479. Link

Miscellaneous

Korn, C. W. (2025). Tools and toys: Impulses for researching and promoting functional social interactions. Athene Magazin der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1. Link

Steiger, O., Doppelhofer, L. M., Kostova, R., Koch, N., & Korn, C. W. (2025). Personality dimensions in borderline personality disorder: A meta-analysis. Poster presented at DGPPN Conference. Link

Hu, X., García-Arch, J., Zhang, S., & Korn, C. W. (2025a). Self-enhancement in artificial cognition: Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural evidence from large language models. Proposal for special issue. Link

Kostova, R., Rosenblau, G., & Korn, C. W. (2025). How do teens and adults learn about other people? In-Mind Online-Magazin. Link

Korn, C. W., & Rosenblau, G. (2020). How do teens and adults learn about other people? Frontiers for Young Minds, 8, 563084. Link