About
Albert Wabnegger (Mag. Dr. rer. nat.) is a researcher at the Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Graz in Austria. His work is anchored in clinical psychology and affective neuroscience, with a strong emphasis on neuroimaging approaches that illuminate the neural underpinnings of emotion, phobia, and impulse-control disorders.
Research Interests
- Neurobiological bases of disgust processing and its maladaptive variants (e.g., dental phobia, skin-picking disorder)
- Functional and structural brain alterations in anxiety and impulse-control disorders
- Placebo and nocebo effects on emotional distress and motor performance
- Social cognition, conspiracy beliefs, and their neural correlates
- Sex-specific neural responses to personal-space intrusion and affective touch
Publication Trends
Across more than 40 peer-reviewed articles (2012-2025), Wabnegger’s research demonstrates a clear trajectory from basic affective neuroscience toward translational clinical applications. Early work mapped structural brain differences in phobia and disgust propensity using voxel-based morphometry. Subsequent studies integrated fMRI to explore amygdala, cerebellar, and prefrontal contributions to emotion regulation, placebo effects, and aberrant social cognition. Recent mega-analyses within the ENIGMA consortium extend these findings to large-scale, cross-disorder investigations of brain aging and morphological alterations in youth psychopathology.
Collaborations & Networks
- Active member of the Brain and Behavior research network at the University of Graz
- Contributor to the ENIGMA Anxiety working group, participating in international mega-analyses
- Ongoing interdisciplinary projects with clinical partners, integrating neuroimaging and behavioral interventions
Contact
Institute of Psychology, University of Graz
Universitätsplatz 2/III, 8010 Graz, Austria
Phone: +43 (0)316 380-5131
Email: albert.wabnegger@uni-graz.at