ROSEBuD · Regulation Of Stress and Early-life Brain Development
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-09-01 → 2026-08-31
- EU contribution
- €311,292
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Regulation Of Stress and Early-life Brain Development
Recent worldwide challenges, such as climate change, wars, immigration crises, and the COVID-19 pandemic, consist of significant stressors with a remarkable impact on the mental health of children and adolescents. Is there a way to protect our world from an upcoming mental health crisis? ROSEBuD project, an EU project funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, puts forward the idea that early-life stress regulation may be the answer. Stressors and even extreme stressors are inevitable, also during childhood. However, through the impressive synergy of nature and nurture, children have the essential capacity to overcome potential life-long consequences of early-life adversity. Complex, dynamic stress regulation processes play a crucial role in protecting the youth from future mental health symptoms. The ROSEBuD project aims to study the prerequisites, the mechanism, and the potential long-term impact of a ubiquitous early-life stress regulation process: being around a caregiver. By focusing on (O1) specific features that enable a caregiver to modulate their child’s stress regulation system during their dyadic interaction, (O2) the characterization of the neural correlates of caregiver-dependent stress regulation in children, and (O3) the description of its effects on the formation of long- term memories, ROSEBuD aspires to formulate a comprehensive, evidence-based model of early-life stress regulation. Knowing more about early-life stress-regulation provides crucial insights into the developmental underpinnings of psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety), as well as the capacity to acquire and maintain new episodic memories, which is the building block of academic achievement. Accordingly, the results of ROSEBuD aspire to advance our understanding of long-standing issues and inspire practice changes in clinical psychology, psychopathology, and education.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Early-life stress and its regulation define adult resilience on stress, well-being, and mental health. Previous research shows that the presence of a caregiver during early life is important for stress regulation, enabling safety feelings, exploratory behaviour, and regulation-related brain development. However, real-time stress experiences have not been examined in those studies and only selective parameters of the stress regulation mechanism have been considered, rather than multiple modalities and their complex interaction. ROSEBuD aims to describe the mechanisms of early-life stress and stress regulation, with and without the presence of a caregiver, in terms of physiological and endocrine synchrony (O1), brain structure and functional connectivity (O2), as well as on effects on memory formation (O3). The project tackles the limitations of existing research with the innovative combination of (a) a naturalistic experimental setting, i.e. real-time exposure to mild, school-like stressors and similar to real-life presence of a caregiver,(b) multi-modal data acquisition, incl. cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques (Diffusion Tensor Imaging, DTI-MRI, and magnetoencephalography, MEG) for optimal spatial and temporal resolution in the study of structural and functional connectivity, (c) state-of-the-art measures of neuroendocrine and physiological synchrony and memory, and (d) advanced analytical methods. Bridging interdisciplinary expertise in stress and memory research (outgoing phase, CISA, Geneva; supervised by Prof. Rimmele) and multilevel and MEG analyses (return phase, FORTH, Heraklion; supervised by Prof. Simos), ROSEBuD project aspires to make an important, timely and impactful contribution to basic and applied research, as well as to the society, informing about the crucial role of early-life stress regulation. Lastly, this work will enable me to synthesize and expand my research interests and skills, and promote my academic or non-academic career prospects.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS · IRAKLEIOCoordinatorGreece
- UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE · GeneveSwitzerland
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101109742
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5093128ba&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union