Welcome to the Human Emotion Systems laboratory at Turku PET Centre, University of Turku. Our goal is to unravel the neurochemical and functional mechanisms that support human emotions, as well as their dysfunction in different psychiatric and neurological disorders. We focus on studying the systems-level biological circuits spanning from brain to periphery, and target particularly the endogenous opioid, dopamine and endocannabinoid systems. To map the brain basis of emotions, we combine state-of-the-art nuclear medicine imaging with advanced singnal analysis, large-scale neuroinformatics and modern clinical psychology. We measure brain’s molecular organization and function with PET and MRI, but do also behavioural work using eye tracking and mobile recording techniques. The laboratory is funded by the European Research Council, Academy of Finland, Business Finland, Signe och Ane Gyllenbergs Stiftelse, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, and Sigrid Juselius Stiftelse. Our group is led by Lauri Nummenmaa.
“Ring-a-ling-a-ling, a-ding dong ding!” –The Ronettes