Research in eHealth and Sports Analytics

Which are the fundamental psychological and neuronal mechanisms that underlie physical activity in the course of everyday life? This is one of many topics that this educational and research area is dealing with. We are especially interested in the connection between well-being and mental health.

Movement and digitisation

Digitisation can decrease physical activity and therefore increase the risk of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and depression - but digital solutions also create the opportunity to promote physical activity as a natural health resource and increase performance.

The range extends from artificial intelligence in competitive sports to fitness devices and digital movement applications in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

Above all, digitisation can improve our understanding of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between movement and health. In the following steps, evidence-based, individually adapted and targeted health solutions can be established in prevention and therapy that get people moving, keep them mentally and physically healthy and increase their quality of life.

Methods and content of research

To answer a variety of research questions in a valid and neurobiological based way, we use a multidisciplinary research approach. We combine methods from

  • Sport science
  • Psychology
  • Systemic neuroscience and
  • Geoinformatics

This way, we can use outpatient assessment to record psychological mechanisms of everyday life validly and with specific consideration of contextual factors, and investigate the neurobiological basis with laboratory methods of systemic neuroscience.

For this purpose we use

  • Ecological Momentary Assessment (electronic diaries on smartphones)
  • mobile accelerometers, ECG and glucose sensors
  • smartphone sensing such as geolocation tracking
  • functional magnetic resonance imaging
Exclusive publications
  • Reichert, M.*, Braun, U.*, Gan, G., Reinhard, I., Giurgiu, M., Ma, R., Zang, Z., Hennig, O., Koch, E. D., Wieland, L., Schweiger, J., Inta, D., Hoell, A., Akdeniz, C., Zipf, A., Ebner-Priemer, U. W.*, Tost, H.*, & Meyer-Lindenberg, A.* (2020). A neural mechanism for affective well-being: Subgenual cingulate cortex mediates real-life effects of nonexercise activity on energy. Science advances, 6(45), eaaz8934. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz8934
  • Tost, H.*, Reichert, M.*, Braun, U.*, Reinhard, I., Peters, R., Lautenbach, S., Hoell, A., Schwarz, E., Ebner-Priemer, U.*, Zipf, A.*, & Meyer-Lindenberg, A.* (2019). Neural correlates of individual differences in affective benefit of real-life urban green space exposure. Nature neuroscience, 22(9), 1389–1393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0451-y
  • Gan, G.*, Ma, R.*, Reichert, M., Giurgiu, M., Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., & Tost, H. (2021). Neural Correlates of Affective Benefit From Real-life Social Contact and Implications for Psychiatric Resilience. JAMA psychiatry, 78(7), 790–792. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0560
  • Reichert, M.*, Schlegel, S.*, Jagau, F., Timm, I., Wieland, L., Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Hartmann, A., & Zeeck, A. (2020). Mood and Dysfunctional Cognitions Constitute Within-Subject Antecedents and Consequences of Exercise in Eating Disorders. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 89(2), 119–121. https://doi.org/10.1159/000504061
  • Reichert, M., Tost, H., Reinhard, I., Schlotz, W., Zipf, A., Salize, H. J., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., & Ebner-Priemer, U. W. (2017). Exercise versus Nonexercise Activity: E-diaries Unravel Distinct Effects on Mood. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 49(4), 763–773. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001149
  • Reichert, M., Gan, G., Renz, M., Braun, U., Brüßler, S., Timm, I., Ma, R., Berhe, O., Benedyk, A., Moldavski, A., Schweiger, J. I., Hennig, O., Zidda, F., Heim, C., Banaschewski, T., Tost, H., Ebner-Priemer, U. W., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2021). Ambulatory assessment for precision psychiatry: Foundations, current developments and future avenues. Experimental neurology, 345, 113807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2021.113807
  • Reichert, M., Giurgiu, M., Koch, E., Wieland, L. M., Lautenbach, S., Neubauer, A. B., von Haaren-Mack, B., Schilling, R., Timm, I., Notthoff, N., Marzi, I., Hill, H., Brüβler, S., Eckert, T., Fiedler, J., Burchartz, A., Anedda, B., Wunsch, K., Gerber, M., Jekauc, D., … Liao, Y. (2020). Ambulatory Assessment for Physical Activity Research: State of the Science, Best Practices and Future Directions. Psychology of sport and exercise, 50, 101742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101742
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