Psychosocial Stress and Memory Control

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Johanna Kißler
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2006 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 23057254

The central goal of this project is to determine to what extent memory control processes are subject to stress related modification and to specify the underlying neural processes. A large body of research in animals and humans demonstrates that prolonged and repeated exposure to social stress has impairs memory in general. We assume that especially memory control processes that organize the way stored material is retrieved by the organism will be impaired by emotional and social stress. This hypothesis will be tested using paradigms that involve various types of retrieval inhibition mechanisms. The impact of stress will be examined using emotionally arousing materials, by pharmacological or psychological stress induction and in subjects suffering from stress-related psychological disorders.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 751: The Science of Social Stress (SOSS): Understanding the Interaction of Mind, Brain and Culture in the Response and Adaptation to Stress