Welcome to the Human Emotion Systems laboratory at Turku PET Centre and Department of Psychology, 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 particularly on studying 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 currently funded by the Academy of Finland, Signe och Ane Gyllenbergs Stiftelse, and Sigrid Juselius Foundation. Our group is led by Lauri Nummenmaa.
-You must always strive to be the best, but you must never believe that you are. — Juan Manuel Fangio