I am Dr. Alexander Diel, a psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. I lead the research group KI und psychische Gesundheit (PsychosomaTech) at the LVR University Hospital Essen, Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy.
 
My research is divided into three major sections:
 
1) Deepfakes:
- human detection ability
- feedback-based training to improve human detection
- harms of deepfake-based expsoure, abuse, and victimization
- potential for clinical application

2) LLM-based chatbots and mental health:
- risks and harms for mental health
- problematic use of chatbots: cognitive overreliance and emotional dependency
- chatbot use by mental health patients

 3) e-mental health:
- review of e-mental health tools in inpatient treatment
- application of AI-based mental health tools (e.g., MindfulAI)
- social robotics in inpatient treatment



Background

I have completed my PhD in psychology at Cardiff University, UK, supervised by Dr Michael Lewis, researching the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the uncanny valley phenomenon. 

Prior to that, I have completed my B.Sc and M.Sc in psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

I have furthermore worked as a research intern at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA and as a visiting researcher at the Guardian Robot Project RIKEN, Japan.

My research and study have been founded two times by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.