Hormones, Body & Emotions
Ever notice how the same problem feels unmanageable on no sleep, and shrinks after a good night's rest? Emotion is never purely mental — it runs on a living body.
This research area asks how bodily and hormonal states set the stage for feeling and its regulation. How do estradiol and the hormonal cycle reshape the brain's regulation networks across the month? How do stress, or how closely we can read our own heartbeat and breath (interoception), change what we're able to manage? And how does sleep — including unsettling states like sleep paralysis — feed back into emotional life?
By treating the body as part of the regulatory system rather than its backdrop, we get closer to the real question: not just whether someone can regulate in principle, but when their body lets them — and when it doesn't.
Projects
-
InterStressER, Tyrolian Science Fund (TNF), 2025 - 2026 (active)
-
EmoSleep, Tyrolian Science Fund (TNF), 2025 - 2026 (active)
Team
Carmen Morawetz (PI), Gaia Lapomarda (InterStressER), Mi Lande (EmoSleep), Laura Gervais & Sofia Amaoui (Hormones)
Key publications
-
Franziska Weinmar, Ann-Christin S. Kimmig, Sofia Amaoui, Laura Gervais, Alkistis Skalkidou, , and Birgit Derntl. Distinct intrinsic neural connectivity of an emotion regulation network across the menopausal transition (2026). Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2026.100365.
-
Lapomarda, G., Frajo-Apor, B., Autengruber, G., Hofer, A., Morawetz, C. Emotion Regulation Difficulties Account for the Associations Between Childhood Maltreatment and Perceived Stress in Young Adulthood (2026). Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma.
-
Weinmar, F., Rehbein, E., Kogler, L., Sundström-Poromaa, I., Skalkidou, A., Derntl, B. (2025) Neural emotion regulation during pregnancy – a fMRI study investigating a transdiagnostic mental health factor in healthy first-time pregnant women. Apr 9:3:imag_a_00529. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00529
-
Derntl, B. Eber, C., Rehbein, E., Kogler, L., Sunstöm-Poromaa, I. & Morawetz, C. (2024). Estradiol modulates changes in effective connectivity in emotion regulation networks. Psychoneuroendocrinology, doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107103.
-
Rehbein, E., Kogler, L., Hornung, J., Bayer, J. Krylova, M., Sundström-Poromaa, I., Derntl, B. (2021). Estradiol Administration Modulates Neural Emotion Regulation. Psychoneuroendocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105425