Dr Elisabeth von dem Hagen
Lecturer
- vondemhagene@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0151
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Research summary
My research interests involve studying the neural mechanisms behind emotion processing and social cognition more generally. I am also interested in how the processing of social signals, like faces and eye gaze, may differ in Autism Spectrum Disorders. To address these questions, I use a combination of behavioural and neuroimaging approaches, including various structural and functional MRI techniques.
Teaching summary
At the UG level, I teach on the Year 2 Thinking, Emotion and Consciousness module (PS2023). I also give Year 2 academic tutorials, supervise Final Year projects, and act as a personal tutor. I also teach on the MSc Neuroimaging: Methods and Applications course and act as an MSc dissertation supervisor. Finally, I also teach and act as personal tutor on the MSc Children’s Psychological Disorders course, as well as supervising dissertation projects.
Undergraduate education
BSc in Physics and Physiology, McGill University, Canada
Postgraduate education
MSc in Medical Physics, University of Toronto, Canada
Thesis: High angular resolution diffusion Magnetic Resonance for the determination of fibre structure
PhD in Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Thesis: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the visual system in humans with albinism
Employment
2015-Present - Lecturer, Cardiff University
2006-2014 - Investigator Scientist, then Senior Investigator Scientist, MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge
2010-2014 - Guest Lecturer, Dept of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
2007-2014 - Associate Lecturer, Open University
2006 - Post-doctoral Researcher, Dept of Psychology, University of York
2019
- Teufel, C.et al. 2019. A hierarchical model of social perception: psychophysical evidence suggests late rather than early integration of visual information from facial expression and body posture. Cognition 185, pp. 131-143. (10.1016/j.cognition.2018.12.012)
2017
- von dem Hagen, E. A. H. and Bright, N. 2017. High autistic trait individuals do not modulate gaze behaviour in response to social presence but look away more when actively engaged in an interaction. Autism Research 10(2), pp. 359-368. (10.1002/aur.1666)
- Ewbank, M. P.et al. 2017. Repetition suppression and memory for faces is reduced in adults with autism spectrum conditions. Cerebral Cortex 27(1), pp. 92-103. (10.1093/cercor/bhw373)
2016
- Ewbank, M. P.et al. 2016. The effect of perceptual expectation on repetition suppression to faces is not modulated by variation in autistic traits. Cortex 80, pp. 51-60. (10.1016/j.cortex.2015.10.011)
- Pell, P. J.et al. 2016. Intact priors for gaze direction in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum conditions. Molecular Autism 7, article number: 25. (10.1186/s13229-016-0085-9)
2014
- Holt, R. J.et al. 2014. 'Reading the mind in the eyes': an fMRI study of adolescents with autism and their siblings. Psychological Medicine 44(15), pp. 3215-3227. (10.1017/S0033291714000233)
- van der Klaauw, A. A.et al. 2014. Obesity-associated melanocortin-4 receptor mutations are associated with changes in the brain response to food cues. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 99(10), article number: E2101. (10.1210/jc.2014-1651)
- Ewbank, M. P.et al. 2014. Repetition suppression in ventral visual cortex is diminished as a function of increasing autistic traits. Cerebral Cortex (10.1093/cercor/bhu149)
- Bridge, H.et al. 2014. Changes in brain morphology in albinism reflect reduced visual acuity. Cortex 56, pp. 64. (10.1016/j.cortex.2012.08.010)
2013
- Lefevre, C. E.et al. 2013. It is all in the face: carotenoid skin coloration loses attractiveness outside the face. Biology Letters 9(6), article number: 20130633. (10.1098/rsbl.2013.0633)
- Teufel, C.et al. 2013. What is social about social perception research?. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 6, article number: 128. (10.3389/fnint.2012.00128)
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2013. Direct gaze elicits atypical activation of the theory-of-mind network in autism spectrum conditions. Cerebral Cortex 24(6), pp. 1485-1492. (10.1093/cercor/bht003)
2012
- Nummenmaa, L.et al. 2012. Autism spectrum traits predict the neural response to eye gaze in typical individuals. NeuroImage 59(4), pp. 3356-3363. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.10.075)
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2012. Reduced functional connectivity within and between 'social' resting state networks in autism spectrum conditions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8(6), pp. 694-701. (10.1093/scan/nss053)
2011
- Fairchild, G.et al. 2011. Brain structure abnormalities in early-onset and adolescent-onset conduct disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 168(6), pp. 624-633. (10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10081184)
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2011. The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism and the effect of baseline on amygdala response to emotional faces. Neuropsychologia 49(4), pp. 674-680. (10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.013)
2010
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2010. Autism spectrum traits in the typical population predict structure and function in the posterior superior temporal sulcus. Cerebral Cortex 21(3), pp. 493-500. (10.1093/cercor/bhq062)
2009
- Passamonti, L.et al. 2009. Personality predicts the brain's response to viewing appetizing foods: The neural basis of a risk factor for overeating. Journal of Neuroscience 29(1), pp. 43-51. (10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4966-08.2009)
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2009. Leaving a bad taste in your mouth but not in my insula. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 4(4), pp. 379-386. (10.1093/scan/nsp018)
2008
- Neveu, M. M.et al. 2008. The fovea regulates symmetrical development of the visual cortex. The Journal of Comparative Neurology 506(5), pp. 791-800. (10.1002/cne.21574)
- Crossland, M. D.et al. 2008. The effect of age and fixation instability on retinotopic mapping of primary visual cortex. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 49(8), pp. 3734-3739. (10.1167/iovs.07-1621)
- Von Dem Hagen, E., Hoffmann, M. B. and Morland, A. B. 2008. Identifying Human Albinism: A Comparison of VEP and fMRI. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 49(1), pp. 238-249. (10.1167/iovs.07-0458)
2007
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2007. Pigmentation predicts the shift in the line of decussation in humans with albinism. European Journal of Neuroscience 25(2), pp. 503-511. (10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05303.x)
2005
- Von Dem Hagen, E.et al. 2005. Retinal abnormalities in human albinism translate into a reduction of grey matter in the occipital cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience 22(10), pp. 2475-2480. (10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04433.x)
2002
- Von Dem Hagen, E. and Henkelman, R. M. 2002. Orientational diffusion reflects fiber structure within a voxel. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 48(3), pp. 454-459. (10.1002/mrm.10250)
Research topics and related papers
My research is broadly concerned with social information processing, and particularly the brain systems underlying the processing of social signals, like faces and eye gaze. I am also interested in how these systems might differ in people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (e.g. von dem Hagen et al, Cerebral Cortex, 2014; von dem Hagen et al, Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 2013). I am also interested in developing novel, more ecologically valid methods to study social information processing. For example, one aspect of this research involves studying eye movements to probe gaze behaviour under different conditions during real social interactions (e.g. von dem Hagen & Bright, 2017).
More recently, I have become interested in how context affects the processing of social signals, and particularly how the brain combines information from these different signals (e.g. Teufel et al, 2019). I'm particularly interested in how emotion information from the face and body are integrated.
My research involves a combination of behavioural and neuroimaging approaches, including psychophysics, eyetracking, functional MRI, and diffusion MRI.
Research Funding
2020-2021 - Wellcome Trust ISSF Cross-Disciplinary Award, £48,069
2012-2013 - MRC Centenary Award, £52,530
Research collaborators
Christoph Teufel (School of Psychology/CUBRIC, Cardiff University)
Catherine Jones (School of Psychology/CUCHDS/WARC, Cardiff University)
Stephanie van Goozen (School of Psychology/CUCHDS, Cardiff University)
Stephan de la Rosa (MPI, Tuebingen)
Postgraduate research interests
If you are interested in applying for a PhD, or for further information regarding my postgraduate research, please contact me directly (contact details available on the 'Overview' page), or submit a formal application.
Current students
Marek Pedziwiatr (start date October 2016; jointly supervised with C. Teufel)
Isobel Ward (start date October 2017; jointly supervised with C. Teufel)
Claire Bowsher-Murray (start date October 2018; jointly supervised with C. Jones & S. van Goozen)
Abigail Finn (start date October 2019)
