Claudia Massaccesi
clamassaccesi.bsky.social
Claudia Massaccesi
@clamassaccesi.bsky.social
Postdoc @LonsdorfLab | previously @ScanUnit @CSNunit & @UZH | (pro)social motivation, reward, opioids & dopamine
Pinned
New paper out in NYAS!
nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We show that protecting others' from pain promotes effortful prosocial behavior 💪🧑‍🤝‍🧑🤝
w/ @clauslamm.bsky.social @silanilab.bsky.social @lei-zhang.bsky.social
(thread below)
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Bee positive: A demonstrator’s positive attitude toward the potential for a reward is picked up by an observer in 🐝 #neuroskyence
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Positive affective contagion in bumble bees
Affective contagion, a core component of empathy, has been widely characterized in social vertebrates but its existence in any invertebrate is unknown. Using a cognitive bias paradigm we demonstrate p...
www.science.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Thanks ACNP! Excited to (virtually) attend my first ACNP meeting 🤩
Congratulations to the ACNP 2025 Global Scholarship Awardees! 🤩
October 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
🚨 PhD/Postdoc alert 👇

If you are interested in doing a PhD/Postdoc in computational psychiatry (starting Sept 2026), do get in touch by October 4th at ondrej.zika@pm.me :)

Any inquiries are welcome. To apply, please attach your CV, half page motivation and half page research statements.
🚨 I am over the moon 🌓 to announce that I am joining University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor this fall to start the Uncertain Mind (UMI) lab 💫

I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
October 1, 2025 at 3:22 PM
New paper out in NYAS!
nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We show that protecting others' from pain promotes effortful prosocial behavior 💪🧑‍🤝‍🧑🤝
w/ @clauslamm.bsky.social @silanilab.bsky.social @lei-zhang.bsky.social
(thread below)
October 2, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Please RT
2 new positions in the lab as postdoc & PhD!

Interested in stress, pain, or reward? This project has it all!

We are a friendly but ambitious group. Oslo is a capital city on the fjord & bordered by forest, great urban & outdoors opportunities: 💃 ⛷️ 🚣 🎭 🎶

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516) | University of Oslo
Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
www.jobbnorge.no
September 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
✨ Exciting news for our upcoming S4SN Lisbon meeting! ✨

Join us from September 23-26 for a dynamic program filled with inspiring talks, poster presentations, and networking opportunities. Get ready to connect, learn, and share ideas in the beautiful city of Lisbon!

The program is out 😍
August 23, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Major news!
Exhaustive metaanalysis (N=2706) finding that endogenous opioids play a MINOR role in human pain regulation:
Consistent with 0.3 on 11-point VAS

By @isabellmeier.bsky.social @martintrostheim.bsky.social @marieeikemo.bsky.social @loseth.bsky.social et al

Thread 👇
osf.io/preprints/os...
OSF
osf.io
August 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
New in Nature MentalHealth! with Vrizzi, Najar, Lemogne, and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social

We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.

The result? Not really.

A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
Behavioral, computational and self-reported measures of reward and punishment sensitivity as predictors of mental health characteristics - Nature Mental Health
Reinforcement learning task-based behavioral and computational measures displayed low test–retest reliability at the individual level. Also in contrast to self-assessed personality measures, behaviora...
doi.org
May 26, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Its a long weekend here in Canada, which seems appropriate to mourn our recent @npp-journal.bsky.social paper, in which we find that FAAH inhibition does NOT improve symptoms in PTSD🙁

A heroic effort w/ @cannabrain.bsky.social @connorhaggarty.bsky.social @ryanntansey.bsky.social & many more 🧵⬇️
The efficacy of elevating anandamide via inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) combined with internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorde...
Neuropsychopharmacology - The efficacy of elevating anandamide via inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) combined with internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of...
www.nature.com
May 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Only 1 week left to apply for our open PhD position! 🧠

‼️ Deadline: May 18th
🚨 Come work with us!

3-year fully funded PhD position in Social and Cognitive Neuroscience @univie.ac.at @clauslamm.bsky.social to join our project investigating prosocial behavior under uncertainty.

More info: shorturl.at/1fnb2

Please share widely 🔁
3y_PhDposition_univie_ScanUnit.pdf
shorturl.at
May 12, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
still a couple of days left to apply!
⚠️Permanent position (E13) as lab manager (psychophysiology, experimental behavioral neuroscience) at University of Bielefeld. Earliest starting date is in July but later is absolutely possible. Please share widely uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org/job/view/427...
Laborleiter*in (m/w/d) Psychophysiologie und Verha...
In der Fakultät für Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft ist zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt die Stelle der*des Laborleiter*in (TV-L E12 bzw. E13) im B...
uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org
May 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
⚠️Permanent position (E13) as lab manager (psychophysiology, experimental behavioral neuroscience) at University of Bielefeld. Earliest starting date is in July but later is absolutely possible. Please share widely uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org/job/view/427...
Laborleiter*in (m/w/d) Psychophysiologie und Verha...
In der Fakultät für Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft ist zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt die Stelle der*des Laborleiter*in (TV-L E12 bzw. E13) im B...
uni-bielefeld.hr4you.org
April 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Amazing opportunity to join the fantastic @scanunit.bsky.social and do cool research on prosocial behavior 🤝🧠
Apply or share widely!
🚨 Come work with us!

3-year fully funded PhD position in Social and Cognitive Neuroscience @univie.ac.at @clauslamm.bsky.social to join our project investigating prosocial behavior under uncertainty.

More info: shorturl.at/1fnb2

Please share widely 🔁
3y_PhDposition_univie_ScanUnit.pdf
shorturl.at
April 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
3-year postdoc position (100% fte, TVL-E13) in human fMRI and psychopharmacology at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, Comparative Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Applications are invited for a 3-year postdoc position in the Comparative Psychology research group
April 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Out in Biological Psychiatry
"Affective and Social Predictors of Food Consumption During the COVID-19 Lockdown"
www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000...
Affective and Social Predictors of Food Consumption During the COVID-19 Lockdown
COVID-19 lockdowns were linked to a surge in unhealthy food–related behaviors, potentially as an attempt to cope with disrupted social homeostasis. Here, we tested bidirectional associations between m...
www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com
April 1, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
🎉New paper out in Royal Society Open Science!🎉

Our lab member Raimund Buehler has just published his second ever, first-author paper!

📄 Read it here: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
#AutismResearch #Neuroscience
Autistic traits relate to reduced reward sensitivity in learning from point-light displays (PLDs) | Royal Society Open Science
A number of studies have linked autistic traits to difficulties in learning from social (versus non-social) stimuli. However, these stimuli are often difficult to match on low-level visual properties,...
royalsocietypublishing.org
March 28, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
🌍 We are launching a new #ManyLabs!!! Join the Heat & Cognition project! We're studying how extreme heat affects human thinking, social behavior & well-being — globally.
Contribute & co-author:
🔗 Info: heatandmind.wordpress.com
📋 Sign up: www.soscisurvey.de/HeatandCogni...
#EnvironmentalPsychology
March 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
A little bby from my PhD is published!

we did a complex study to answer a simple Q:
do day-to-day feelings impact choices?

A: Yes. When feeling motivated (independent of other stable or unstable feelings) choices changed because rewards seemed greater.

open access link:
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Day-to-day fluctuations in motivation drive effort-based decision-making | PNAS
Internal states like motivation fluctuate substantially over time. However, studies of the neurocomputational mechanims of motivated behavior have ...
doi.org
March 18, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
As the world grows scarier, let's talk about social connection!

We review its role in addiction & how it's influenced by opioids, now out in Biological Psychiatry (special issue on social homeostasis)

It's @loseth.bsky.social's brainchild & covers A LOT🧠

doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

#neuroscience
Redirecting
doi.org
February 18, 2025 at 9:07 PM
New preprint from my postdoc work @scanunit.bsky.social
osf.io/preprints/ps...
“Avoiding pain to others motivates effortful prosocial behavior reducing prosocial apathy”
w/ @clauslamm.bsky.social @lei-zhang.bsky.social @silanilab.bsky.social
OSF
osf.io
February 17, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
Negative affectivity drivers of impulsivity in opioid use disorder

Review by Jasmin Vassileva, Elena Psederska & James M. Bjork

Web: go.nature.com/40hYoG5
PDF: rdcu.be/d6CGB

#psychology #psychscisky #addictionsci
January 17, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
The @pact-lab.bsky.social is hiring 🤩

We're looking for a nurse to support our psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy clinical trials for alcohol use disorder (ongoing) and concussion (upcoming) at UCalgary 🍄

More info here: careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/1547185...
Casual (Hourly) Clinical Research Nurse, Psychiatry in Calgary, AB, ...
Casual (Hourly) Clinical Research Nurse, Psychiatry in Calgary, AB, ...
careers.ucalgary.ca
January 17, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Reposted by Claudia Massaccesi
We are a bit late for this, but happy new year from the SCAN unit! 🎈
We are thankful for the productive and joyful times together and looking forward to another year of exciting research! 🤩
Here is our 2024 in review 👇
January 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Closing the year with a new paper from my research visit at Quednow's lab @UZH ✨
We examined associations between cumulative hair #testosterone & #cortisol and social decision-making in a large cohort of young adults
w/ @lydiafjf.bsky.social and many others
No evidence for an association of testosterone and cortisol hair concentrations with social decision-making in a large cohort of young adults
Abstract. Prior research has established that testosterone is an important modulator of social decision-making. However, evidence on the relationship betwe
academic.oup.com
December 16, 2024 at 10:06 AM