LSA Fellows 14 

Project titel: Sagt die Leistung in einem Sicherheitslern-Paradigma die individuelle Stressresilienz oder -vulnerabilität vorher? Projectleader: Dr. Iris Müller

Stress consequences are multifaceted and extend from different psychiatric disorders to complete recovery. This response variability has led to the quest for early markers of resilience. In men and mice immune and endocrine changes are well established and since these changes manifest early on, they serve as predictors for resilience and vulnerability. On a behavioral level a recent study in humans showed that the performance in a safety learning paradigm positively correlated with later stress resilience. In this paradigm the individual learns to suppress a previously conditioned fear response upon presentation of a safety cue, informing the subject that now no threat occurs. Similar paradigms exist in rodents. Whether and how performance in this paradigm predicts later stress coping is subject to this project. Additionally, immune and endocrine biomarkers will be measured in the blood and brain, and the integrity of the blood brain brain barrier will be assessed at different time points. I hypothesise that the combination of safety learning performance with peripheral and central biomarkers of the stress response predicts the quality and chronicity of stress-induced behavioral disturbances. This will enable a better prediction of disease developemment in humans(reverse translation) and as a consequence patient-tayilored therapies.