Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dipl.-Psych. Katja Bertsch

Psychological Head of the Working Group Personality Disorders

Emotions and social interactions:

• Anger and aggression, social anxiety, neurobiological bases of emotions

Psychoneuroendocrinology:

• Influence of stress, sex, and attachment hormones on social cognitions and interactions.

Personality disorders and their antecedents:

• Borderline and antisocial personality disorder. 

Methodological focus:

• Experimental psychopathology, functional and structural imaging, psychophysiology, eye tracking, endocrinology.

DFG – Clinical research group 256 (PI Bertsch & Herpertz): Biobehavioral Mechanisms Underlying Reactice Aggression in Borderline Personality Disorder: Validation and Pharmacological Modulation

DFG – Clinical research group 256 (PI Herpertz & Bertsch): Hypersensitivity to Social Threat, Anger, and Aggression in Borderline Personality Disorder – Development of a Mechanism-Based Psychotherapy

DFG – Clinical research group (PI Bertsch): Neural Correlates of Reactive Aggression in Borderline Personality Disorder – Development and Testing of a New Paradigm

DFG (PI Bertsch) Oxytocinergic Effects on Socio-emotional Functioning in Socially Anxious Individuals

EU FP-7-Health – FemNat-CD (PI Herpertz & Bertsch): The Role of Oxytocin in Social Threat Perception and Aggression in Antisocial Personality Disorder: Pharmaco-challenge snd Investigation of Gender Differences

Friedrich-Fischer Foundation (PI Bertsch): Threat Sensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder: an Eyetracking Study

BMBF – UBICA (PI Herpertz, Reck, Möhler, Resch & Bertsch): Behavioral and Neural Effects of Mothers’ History of Childhood Abuse on the Interaction with their Child – a Study on the Intergenerational Cycle of Violence

Bertsch, K. (2017). Soziale Verträglichkeit, Impulskontrolle und Aggressivität. In S. C. Herpertz, F. Caspar, & K. Lieb. (Eds.) Psychotherapie: Funktions- und störungsorientiertes Vorgehen (1 ed.). München Elsevier.

Bertsch, K. (2017). Affekte, Spannung, Impulsivität und APD. In B. Dulz, P. Briken, O. F. Kernberg, & U. Rauchfleisch (Eds.), Handbuch der antisozialen Persönlichkeitsstörung. Stuttgart: Schattauer Verlag.

Herpertz, S. C., Mancke, F., & Bertsch, K. (2014). Aggressivität bei der Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung – eine psychiatrische Perspektive. Marsilius-Akademie: Gewalt und Altruismus.

Bertsch, K. (2011). Neurobiologie der Aggression. In F. Schneider (Ed.), Positionen der Psychiatrie (pp.89–94). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Bertsch, K., Krauch, M., Stopfer, K., Haeussler, K., Herpertz, S.C., & Gamer, M. (2017). Interpersonal threat sensitivity in borderline personality disorder – an eye tracking study. Journal of Personality Disorders. doi:10.1521/pedi_2017_31_273.

Herpertz, S. C., Nagy, K., Ueltzhöffer, K., Schmitt, R., Mancke, F., Schmahl, C., & Bertsch, K. (2017). Brain mechanisms underlying reactive aggression in borderline personality disorder – sex matters. Biological Psychiatry, doi:10.1016/j.biopsch.2017.02.1175.

Mancke, F., Herpertz, S. C., Kleindienst, N., & Bertsch, K. (2017). Emotion dysregulation and trait anger sequentially mediate the association between borderline personality disorder and aggression. Journal of Personality Disorders, 31, 256-272.

Herpertz, S. C. & Bertsch, K. (2016). Oxytocin effects on brain functioning in humans. Biological Psychiatry, 79, 631-632.
 

Hillmann, K., Neukel, C., Hagemann, D., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2016). Resilience factors in women with severe early life maltreatment. Psychopathology, 49, 261-268.

Hillmann, K., Neukel, C., Hagemann, D., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2016). Resilience factors in women with severe early life maltreatment. Psychopathology, 49, 261-268.

Mancke, Herpertz, S. C., Hirjak, D., Knies, R., & Bertsch, K. (2016). Amygdala structure and aggressiveness in borderline personality disorder. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

Meyer, P.-W. Müller, L. E., Zastrow, A., Schmidinger, I., Bohus, M., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2016). Heart rate variability in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder or borderline personality disorder – relationship to early life maltreatment. Journal of Neural Transmission,123, 1107-1118.

Meyhöfer, I., Bertsch, K., Esser, M., & Ettinger, U. (2016). Variance in saccadic eye movements reflects stable traits. Psychophysiology, 53, 566-578.

Mielke, E., Neukel, C., Bertsch, K., Reck, C., Möhler, E., & Herpertz, S.C. (2016). Maternal sensitivity and the empathetic brain: influences of early life maltreatment. Journal of Psychiatry Research, 77, 59–66.

Paret, C., Ruf, M., Gerchen, M.F., Kluetsch, R., Demirakca, T., Jungkunz, M., Bertsch, K., Schmahl, C., & Ende, G. (2016). fMRI neurofeedback of amygdala response to aversive stimuli enhances prefrontal-limbic brain connectivity. Neuroimage, 125, 182–188.

Herpertz, S. C. & Bertsch, K. (2015). A new perspective on the pathophysiology of borderline personality disorder: a model of the role of oxytocin. American Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 840–851.

Mancke, F., Bertsch, K., & Herpertz, S. C. (2015). Gender differences in aggression of borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 2:7, doi: 10.1186/s40479-015-0028-7.

Mancke, F., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2015a). Aggression in borderline personality disorder – a multidimensional model. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research and Treatment, 6, 278–291.

Mancke, F., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2015b). Core questions and next steps in research on aggression in borderline personality disorder: Rejoinder for „Aggression in borderline personality disorder-A multidimensional model“. Personality Disorders: Theory, Reseach and Treatment, 6, 298-299.

Müller, L. E., Schulz, A., Andermann, M., Gäbel, A., Gescher, D. M., Spohn, A., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2015). Cortical representation of afferent bodily signals in borderline personality disorder: Neural correlates and relationship to emotional dysregulation. JAMA Psychiatry, 72, 1077–1086.

Rausch, J., Gäbel, A., Nagy, K., Kleindienst, N., Herpertz, S. C., & Bertsch, K. (2015). Increased testosterone levels and cortisol awakening responses in patients with borderline personality disorder: gender and trait aggressiveness matter. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 55, 116-127.

Herpertz, S. C. & Bertsch, K. (2014). The social-cognitive basis of personality disorder. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 27, 73–77.

Herpertz, S. C., Mancke, F., Jeung, H., & Bertsch, K. (2014). Social dysfunctioning and brain in borderline personality disorder. Psychopathology, 47, 417-424.

Schmahl, C., Herpertz, S. C., Bertsch, K., Ende, G., Flor, H., Kirsch, P., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Rietschel, M., Schneider, M., Spanagel, R., Treede, R.-D., & Bohus, M. (2014). Mechanisms of disturbed emotion processing and social interaction in borderline personality disorder: state of knowledge and research agenda of the German Clinical Research Unit. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation. doi:10.1186/2051-6673-1-12.

Bertsch, K., Gamer, M., Schmidt, B., Schmidinger, I., Walther, S., Kaestel, T., Schnell, K., Büchel, C., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). Oxytocin reduces social threat hypersensitivity in females with borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 1169–1177.

Bertsch, K., Grothe, M., Prehn, K., Vohs, K., Berger, C. Hauenstein, K., Keiper, P., Domes, G., Teipel, S., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). Brain volumes differ between diagnostic groups of violent criminal offenders. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 263, 593–606.

Bertsch, K., Schmidinger, I., Neumann, I. D., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). Reduced plasma oxytocin levels in female patients with borderline personality disorder. Hormones and Behavior, 63, 424–429.

Henze, R., Barth, J., Parzer, P., Bertsch, K., Schmitt, R., Lenzen, C., Herpertz, S., Resch, F., Brunner, F., & Kaess, M. (2013). Validierung eines Screening-Instruments zur Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung im Jugend- und jungen Erwachsenenalter – Gütekriterien und Zusammenhang mit dem Selbstwertgefühl der Patienten. Fortschritte der Neurologie – Psychiatrie, 81, 324–330.

Kuhlmann, A.*, Bertsch, K.*, Schmidinger, I., Thomann, P.A., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). Morphometric differences in central stress-regulating structures between women with and without borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 38, 129–137. *shared first-authorship

Bertsch, K., Hagemann, D., Naumann, E., Schächinger, H., & Schulz, A., (2012). Stability of heart rate variability indices reflecting parasympathetic activity. Psychophysiology, 49, 672– 682.

Bertsch, K. & Herpertz, S.C. (2011). Oxytocin – ein prosoziales Hormon: Effekte in und außerhalb des Wochenbetts. Gynäkologische Endokrinologie, 9, 36–40.

Bertsch, K., Böhnke R., Kruk, M. R., Richter, S., & Naumann, E. (2010). Exogenous cortisol facilitates responses to social threat under high provocation. Hormones and Behavior, 59, 428-434.

Böhnke, R., Bertsch, K., Kruk, M. R., Richter, S. & Naumann, E. (2010). Exogenous cortisol enhances aggressive behavior in females, but not in males. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35, 1034–1044.

Bertsch, K., Hagemann, D., Hermes, M., Walter, C., Khan, R., & Naumann, E. (2009). Resting Cerebral Blood Flow, Attention, and Aging. Brain Research, 1267, 77-88.

Hermes, M., Hagemann, D., Britz, P., Lieser, S., Bertsch, K., Naumann, E., & Walter, C. (2009). Latent state-trait structure of cerebral blood flow in a resting state. Biological Psychology, 80, 196-202.

Böhnke, R., Bertsch, K., Kruk, M. R., & Naumann, E., (2010). The relationship of basal and acute HPA axis activity and aggressive behavior in healthy adults. Journal of Neural Transmission, 117, 629–637.