I am interested in factors that influence how we perceive pain in ourselves and in other people. To investigate this, I use neuroimaging, neuromodulation and behavioral experiments. My approach to science strongly aligns with open scholarship principles. Next to my work as a researcher, I enthusiastically engage in and teach science communication.
PhD in social neuroscience, 2022
University of Vienna, Austria
MSc in clinical & biological psychology, 2017
University of Vienna, Austria
BSc in psychology, 2014
University of Vienna, Austria
I am currently working at the Bingellab (Clinical Neurosciences) at the University Hospital Essen as a postdoctoral researcher. I did my PhD at the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit at the University of Vienna. During this time, I was a visiting researcher in the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam.
Behavior, pain, effort, heart rate, skin conductance
SPM, FreeSurfer, Nipype, & Neuronavigation
RStudio, JASP, Matlab, & Python/Jupyter
In my Postdoc, I am using fMRI combined with placebo hypoalgesia/nocebo hyperalgesia to find out more about the cognitive modulation of first-hand pain perception. Specifically, as part of the Collaborative Research Center 289 “Treatment Expectations” I am interested in the modulating role of positive and negative expectations on real and fake treatments as well as mechanisms of open-label placebos.
More content about treatment expectations for interested people can be accessed here. You can also follow us on Youtube or Instagram, and watch our recent animated film:
My PhD research focused on the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying shared representations between first-hand and empathy for pain, as well as their connection to prosocial behavior. Specifically, I was interested in 1) the necessity of somatosensory brain regions for feelings of empathy, and 2) whether we need our own pain processing system to empathize with and help others in pain.
Below is a short animation of my PhD research made by Scientistt:
You can also watch a video of my PhD defense presentation:
I am a community manager at Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT). I am leading the replications & reversals project, and am involved in multiple others, such as the glossary, neurodiversity and impact for students projects. FORRT is always looking for new contributors and collaborators, so learn how to get involved here.
Collaborative hackathons for FORRT’s “Replications and Reversals in Social Sciences” project
Engaging with Open Science as Feminist Early Career Researchers: 6 Top Tips
I am always happy to give talks about my research, science communication and open science, both scientist-to-scientist and scientist-to-public. Contact me via helena.hartmann@uk-essen.de.
I was one of eight presentations of the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT)’s amazing projects, presented at our first ever Open Day (my talk starts at 4:08):
I gave a short presentation about a study where I investigated the effects of placebo analgesia on prosocial behavior at the 2021 Society for Social Neuroscience conference:
I talked about first experiences and lessons learned when preregistering an fMRI study at the Methods Meeting of the Institute of Systems Neuroscience in Hamburg. Find the slides here.
Below is a short talk about the effects of placebo analgesia on interoceptive abilities that I gave as part of the symposium “From heart to brain and back: novel findings and methodological challenges in interoception research” organized by Federica Riva and myself at the 63rd Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP).
I was part of the feminist dream team that gave the collaborative talk “Navigating open science as early career feminist researchers” at the RIOT Science Club’s “Open Research: A Vision for the Future” conference in March 2021.
This is a talk I gave at the online lecture series OnNeuro about parts of my PhD on the role of the somatosensory component of pain processing in empathy in November 2020:
Lecture “Science for Everyone! Science Communication for Beginners” - slides (University of Vienna, 2020) and updated slides (BIOME lecture series, University Duisburg-Essen, 2022).
Lectures “Doing Good/Open Science” (University of Vienna, 2019 & 2020):
Check out my awesome-PhD GitHub repository that includes a curated list of carefully selected tools and resources I wish I knew when starting my PhD. Please feel free to contribute more resources! Also have a look at the Twitter thread where I started this list.
Have a look at the fMRI preregistration template I helped update.
Find stimuli templates for my first-hand and empathy for pain task from Hartmann et al. (2021, NeuroImage) here.
Check out the data and code associated with Hartmann et al. (2022, PsychScience) here.
Below you can find my open fMRI datasets:
Cyberball task for use in individuals with autism spectrum disorder from Hartmann, Lengersdorff et al. (2021, Frontiers in Psychiatry)
Picture-based empathy for pain task from Hartmann et al. (2021, Cerebral Cortex Communications)
Cue-based empathy for pain task from Hartmann et al. (2021, NeuroImage)
Personal space task in autism spectrum disorder from Massaccesi et al. (2020, Cerebral Cortex)
Are you interested in interviewing me about my research or do you want me to write something for your media outlet? Contact me via helena.hartmann@uk-essen.de.
I wrote an article for Frontiers for Young Minds for children between 12-15 years titled The nocebo effect: The placebo’s “evil twin”.
Together with Claus Lamm, I answered a question for the German Gehirn & Geist magazine: “Was bewirkt Empathie im Gehirn?”
I was part of a German blogpost for the In-Mind magazine on “What is open scholarship? And why does it need a dictionary?”.
As part of IASP’s 2022 Global Year of Translating Pain Knowledge to Practice, I co-wrote a fact sheet about treatment expectations and the patient-physician interaction. The fact sheet is available in English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, & Spanish.
I wrote a German In-Mind article about empathy and how we share the emotions of others, together with Markus Rütgen and Claus Lamm. Read the full article here.
I also contributed two entries to the In-Mind glossary: Theorie der Geteilten Repräsentationen and Endogenes Opioidsystem.
Here’s a playlist of all the podcasts I was a part of.
The science communication podcast Clarified interviewed me about my project Science & Fiction.
I talked to Lee Delaney from Curiosity Cake about my PhD, specifically what kinds of methods I employ to measure empathy for pain in brain and behavior.
I was so lucky to be part of the episode “Ever Felt Someone’s Pain… In Your Butt?” by Every Little Thing. Learn all about vicarious pain and how we can feel someone else’s pain in our own body.
I chatted with Aaron Halliday about my research on empathy, prosocial behavior and interoception, but also about making science relevant and accessible to everyone.
DiscoverPhDs asked me about my PhD research, what a typical work day looks like for me and what enjoyments and challenges my PhD entails. Have a look at the full interview.
1 Million Women in STEM (1MWIS), a global network providing the stories of women studying & working in STEM, asked me what I do, why I chose this field of research, what I would tell my younger self and why I love working in STEM. Have a look at my answers.
Check out the German interview I did for my Twitter takeover at Real Scientists DE in May 2020.
Together with Ulrike Bingel and Angelika Kunkel, we participated at the Self Help Day of the University Medicine Essen and educated patients and stakeholders about treatment expectations.
I was part of a Children’s University workshop at the University of Vienna, where we taught children about the brain, perspective taking and empathy.
Here I explained my research on empathy for pain and prosocial behavior in German at a science communication format called Kaffeeklatsch mit Wissenschaft hosted by the amazing Franziska Sattler in February 2021. Find the slides to this talk here.
Pint of Science (PoS) brings scientists to share their latest research with you! I was part of 2020’s “Beautiful Mind” event manager team to organize three exciting evenings all about neuroscience that were unfortunately cancelled due to COVID. In 2021, I also helped organize online events for PoS Amsterdam in 2021 (see for example here or here). More info on the Website.
Together with my PhD colleagues, I organized a booth at the Long Night of Research in Vienna all about research in psychology and social neuroscience in 2018. Have you ever experienced the rubberhand illusion? How do we investigate something called affective touch? Can we put awake dogs into an MR-scanner? And can you match all brains to their corresponding species?
Art of Neuroscience: Have a look at my application for the art competition all about neuroscience here.
Photo Competition “My Research in one Picture”: In 2018, my photo about my PhD research titled “Another’s Pain in my Placebo Brain” got into the Top 10 of winning photos. See the other photos or general information on the competition.
I am part of the scientific advisory committee of Project Encephalon, an “international, trainee-led non-profit organization for neuroscience enthusiasts”.
I support Brain Hero, a startup company in Vienna, as an external scientific advisor. They are developing a neurofeedback game to improve concentration levels and relaxation capabilities in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Feminist Alliance Book Club (FemABC), founded in December 2020, is a monthly book club to read and discuss books centred around feminism and underrepresented genders. EVERYBODY is welcome to join! For more infomation, have a look at our Twitter or Goodreads pages. More info on the general idea and joining us can also be found here. If you have questions or want to become a member, write us an email at abc.feminist@gmail.com.
Sign up for my pain study here.
Have a look at the currently running studies and trials in the Bingellab here and our collaborative research center here.
Check out the SCAN-Unit Facebook Page to find out about current studies.
Sign up on participants platforms of the Laboratory Administration for Behavioral Sciences or the Vienna Cognitive Science Hub to get regular study invitations in your inbox.