• Member of the ‘RINAI’ Clinician Scientist Program Faculty, RUB
• Deputy Member, Faculty Board, Medical Faculty, RUB
• Member of the Board of Trustees, Leibniz Research Center for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), Dortmund
• Deputy Member of Rectorate Commission for Tenure Track Procedures, RUB
• Appointment as Expert into the Control and Review Commission for the first section of the medical examination at the ‘Institut f. Medizinische und Pharmazeutische Prüfungsfragen (IMPP)’
• Board Member, SFB 1280 ‘Extinction Learning’, RUB
• Co-Chair, Psychosocial Committee, Rome Foundation
• Member, International Graduate School of Neuroscience (IGSN), RUB
• Principle Investigator, Research Department of Neuroscience (RDN), RUB Steering Committee Member and Coordinator of Early Career Support and Diversity Management, CRC/TRR 289 ‘Treatment Expectation’, UDE
• Co-opted Faculty Member, Faculty of Psychology, RUB
• Member of Medical Faculty Teaching Commission, Quality Improvement and Educational Advisory Committees, RUB
• Mandate holder for guidelines of the Association of Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF): S3 guideline irritable bowel syndrome; S3 guideline motility disorders

• Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying abnormal interoception and chronic visceral pain in conditions involving the gut-brain axis, including disorders of gut-brain interactions like irritable bowel syndrome and chronic-inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis
• Cognitive modulation of visceral pain perception, encompassing research into the role of expectations, emotions, stress and pain-related learning and memory processes
• Specificity of interoceptive, visceral versus exteroceptive, somatic pain perception in health and disease
• Combination of research approaches from experimental pain and stress research, the cognitive neurosciences and psychoneuroendocrinology/psychoneuroimmunology

Lanters LR, Öhlmann H, Langhorst J, Theysohn N, Engler H, Icenhour A*, Elsenbruch S* (2024). Disease-specific alterations in central fear network engagmement during acquisition and extinction of conditioned interoceptive fear in inflammatory bowel disease. Mol Psychiatry; May 27. doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02612-7.

Levenig CG, Hasenbring MI, Günnewig L, Titze C, Elsenbruch S, Schulte TL (2024). Treatment Expectations-You Get What You Expect-and Depression Plays a Role. J Pain; May 29:104582. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104582.

Bauer N, Löffler C, Oeznur O, Uecker C, Schlee C, Adamczyk A, Elsenbruch S, Pfuhlmann K, Reissmann R, Westendorf A, Keil T, Langhorst J (2024). Evaluation of a Multimodal Stress Management and Comprehensive Lifestyle Modification Program on Quality of Life and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Patients with Crohn's Disease: A         Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial with 9-Month Follow-Up. Digestion; 105(3):201-212. doi: 10.1159/000536659.

Schmidt K, Schlitt F, Wiech K, Merz CJ, Kleine-Borgmann J, Wolf OT, Engler H, Forkmann K, Elsenbruch S*, Bingel U* (2024). Hydrocortisone Differentially Affects Reinstatement of Pain-related Responses in Patients With Chronic Back Pain and Healthy Volunteers. J Pain; 25(4):1082-1093. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.10.028.

Benson S, Labrenz F, Kotulla S, Brotte L, Roedder P, Tebbe B, Theysohn N, Engler H, Elsenbruch S (2023) Amplified gut feelings under inflammation and depressed mood: A randomized fMRI trial on interoceptive pain in healthy volunteers. Brain Behav Immun 112: 132-137. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.06.005.  

Öhlmann H, Lanters LR, Theysohn N, Langhorst J, Engler H, Icenhour A*, Elsenbruch S* (2023) Distinct alterations in central pain processing of visceral and somatic pain in quiescent ulcerative colitis compared to irritable bowel syndrome and health. J Crohns Colitis 17: 1639-1651. doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjad080.

Pawlik RJ, Petrakova L, Cueillette A, Krawczyk K, Theysohn N, Elsenbruch S*, Engler H* (2023)

Inflammation shapes neural processing of interoceptive fear predictors during extinction learning in healthy humans. Brain Behav Immun 108: 328-339. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2022.12.010.

Keefer L, Ballou SK, Drossman DA, Ringstrom G, Elsenbruch S, Ljótsson B (2022) A Rome working team report on brain-gut behaviour therapies for disorders of gut-brain interaction. Gastroenterology 162: 300-315. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.09.015.

Icenhour A, Petrakova L, Hazzan N, Theysohn N, Merz CJ, Elsenbruch S (2021) When gut feelings teach the brain to fear pain: Context-dependent activation of the central fear network in a novel interoceptive conditioning paradigm. Neuroimage 238: 118229. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118229.

Bosman M, Elsenbruch S, Corsetti M, Tack J, Simrén M, Winkens B, Boumans T, Masclee A, Keszthelyi D (2021) The placebo response rate in pharmacological trials in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 6: 459-473. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00023-6.

Koenen LR, Pawlik RJ, Icenhour A, Petrakova L, Forkmann K, Theysohn N, Engler H, Elsenbruch S (2021) Associative learning and extinction of conditioned threat predictors across sensory modalities. Comm Biol 4: 553. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02008-1.

Roderigo T, Benson S, Schöls M, Hetkamp M, Schedlowski M, Enck P, Elsenbruch S (2017) Effects of acute psychological stress on placebo and nocebo responses in a clinically relevant model of visceroception. Pain 158: 1489-98. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000940.

Koenen LR, Icenhour A, Forkmann K, Pasler A, Theysohn N, Forsting M, Bingel U, Elsenbruch S (2017) Greater fear of visceral pain contributes to differences between visceral and somatic pain in healthy women. Pain 158: 1599-1608. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000924.

Schmid J, Langhorst J, Gaß F, Theysohn N, Benson S, Engler H, Gizewski ER, Forsting M, Elsenbruch S (2015) Placebo analgesia in patients with functional and organic abdominal pain: A fMRI study in IBS, UC and healthy volunteers. Gut 64: 418-27. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2013-306648.

*Shared authorship