Since 2015 Dr. Benjamin Becker is working as full-time professor at the UESTC and head of the Neurotherapy & Social Cognition and Affective Neuroscience Lab. He received his Master and PhD Degrees in Psychology at the Universities of Trier and Duesseldorf in Germany. During his postdoctoral studies at the Departments of Psychiatry in Cologne and Bonn (Germany) his research employed advanced neuroimaging to explore the emotional circuits of the human brain in healthy subjects and determine dysregulations of these circuits in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. His current projects aim at translating these findings to enhance emotional control in healthy subjects with the ultimate aim to improve the treatment of mental disorders such as anxiety and addiction. To this end his team employs an entire array of affective and cognitive neuroscience methods including neural decoding as well as novel pharmacological neuroenhancers and technology-based approaches such as real-time functional imaging-based neurofeedback. Dr. Becker’s research is supported by competitive research grants from German and Chinese funding agencies. He has published over 180 scientific publications, including book chapters as well as publications in high-ranking international peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature Communications, Advanced Science, Brain, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Biological Psychiatry, elife etc. In 2018 Prof. Becker received the “Academic and Technical Leading Scientist of Sichuan Province” and in 2021 the "Tianfu Friendship" award.
Representative publications:
1. Zhou F, Zhao W, Qi Z, Geng Y, Yao S, Wager TD*, Becker B* (2021), A distributed fMRI-based signature for the subjective experience of
fear. Nature Communictaions. Article number: 6643 (2021). [IF 14.92]
2. Zhou F*, Li J, Zhao W, Xu L, Zheng X, Fu M, Yao S, Kendrick KM, Wager TD, Becker B* (2020) Empathic pain evoked by sensory and emotional-communicative cues share common and process-specific neural representation. eLife 9:e56928. [IF 8.1]
3. Quintana D*, Lischke A, Grace S, Scheele D, Ma Y, Becker B* (2020) Advances in the field of oxytocin research: lessons learned and future directions for clinical research. Molecular Psychiatry (Epub ahead of print, doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-00864-7). [IF 15.9]
4. Xin F, Zhou X, Dong D, Zhao Z, Yang X, Wang Q, Gu Y, Kendrick KM, Chen A*, Becker B* (2020) Oxytocin differentially modulates amygdala responses during top-down and bottom-up aversive anticipation. Advanced Science 2001077. IF 15.8]
5. Xu X, Dai J, Liu C, Chen Y, Xin F, Zhou F, Zhou X, Huang Y, Wang J, Zou Z, Li J, Ebstein RP, Kendrick KM, Zhou B*, Becker B* (2019) Common and disorder-specific neurofunctional markers of dysregulated empathic reactivity in major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 89: 114-116. [IF 17.7]
6. Zhou F, Geng Y, Li J, Feng P, Liu C, Zhao W, Feng T, Guastella A, Ebstein, RP, Kendrick KM, Becker B* (2019) Human extinction learning is accelerated by an angiotensin antagonist via ventromedial prefrontal cortex and its connections with basolateral amygdala. Biological Psychiatry 86:910-920. [IF 13.4]
7. Zhao Z, Yao S, Li K, Sindermann C, Zhou F, Zhao W, Li J, Luehrs M, Goebel R, Kendrick KM, Becker B* (2019) Real-time functional connectivity-based neurofeedback of amygdala-frontal pathways reduces anxiety. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 88:5-15. [IF 17.7]
8. Li J, Xu L, Zheng X, Fu M, Zhou F, Xu X, Ma X, Li K, Kendrick KM*, Becker B* (2019) Common and dissociable contributions of alexithymia and autism to domain-specific interoceptive dysregulations - a dimensional approach. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 88: 187-189. [IF 17.7]
9. Becker B*, Wagner D, Koester P, Tittgemeyer M, Mercer-Chalmers-Bender K, Hurlemann R, Zhang J, Gouzoulis-Mayfrank E, Kendrick KM, Daumann J (2015) Smaller amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex predict escalating stimulant use. Brain 138:2074-86. [IF 13.5]
10. Becker B, Scheele D, Moessner R, Maier W, Hurlemann R (2013) Deciphering the neural signature of conversion blindness. American Journal of Psychiatry 170:121-122. [IF 18.1]
Members of academic organisations:
Since 08/2020 Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics Through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) – Generalized Anxiety Work Group
Since 01/2020 Interest Group Open and Reproducible Science of the Biological Psychology Chapter of the German Association for Psychology
Since 07/2019 Society of Biological Psychiatry (SoBP)
Since 09/2018 Psychological Science Accelerator
Since 05/2018 Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AsCNP)
Since 04/2018 Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP)
Since 06/2017 European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP)
Since 10/2015 Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS)
Since 12/2013 German Association for Psychology (DGPs)
Since 06/2012 Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
Since 05/2010 Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM)
Editorial board and Scientific Committee:
§ Since 2021 Section Chief Editor: Frontiers in Neuroimaging, Section-Social and Affective Neuroimaging
§ Since 09/2020 Editorial Board Psychoradiology
§ Since 03/2020 Editorial Board Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
§ Since 05/2018 Associate Editor Psychopharmacology
§ Since 05/2016 Associate Editor BMC Neuroscience
§ Scientific
committee: The third International real-time fMRI and Neurofeedback conference
(Nara, Japan) – 11/2017
§ Scientific
committee: The 5th International Conference on Neuroinformation (Chengdu, China)
– 07/2017
§ Guest editor Current advances in affective neuroscience . Frontiers in Neuroscience, Research Topic 01/2018