Research activities

Forming lasting memories of stressful events is essential for survival. However, when stressful experiences are poorly segmented in time, they can generalize, making the world constantly threatening. This mechanism is implicated in major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Critically, females are twice as likely as males to develop these disorders. Yet, most research has focused on males, overlooking the complex interplay between stress and sex hormones.

The main research objective of this group is to investigate how stress and sex hormones interact to shape the behavioral, neuroendocrine and neural underpinnings of time perception and temporal memory in females. To test it, we combine pharmacological manipulations, neuroendocrine measures, probabilistic models of sex hormonal fluctuations, with fMRI neuroimaging and neuromodulation, in healthy and clinical populations.

Studying stress and cognition in females is timely and important for society. By entering this wide-open field, this project will advance science across disciplines, inform female’s health and pave the way to developing better, sex- and hormone-specific interventions.

Contact

Monika Riegel
Faculty of Psychology
Monika.Riegel@unige.ch