Project description
Studying the impact of stress on decision-making
Everyday decisions, from dietary choices to exercise habits, significantly shape our long-term health. Yet, factors like stress and psychiatric disorders often steer us toward detrimental outcomes. The MSCA-funded BETTERCHOICES project dives into the biological underpinnings of compromised decision-making. Investigating stress-related neuromodulators, cortisol and noradrenaline, the project explores their impact on reward-driven efforts. Can pre-commitment shield us from their effects? The project also introduces the ‘pre-commit-to-eat’ paradigm, gauging the power of pre-commitment in food choices. Going beyond, it will integrate a psychoeducation programme during a psychiatric clinic placement. As an interdisciplinary endeavour, BETTERCHOICES bridges psychopharmacology and behavioural economics, offering insights into decision-making under stress and fostering healthier choices for all.
Objective
Everyday decisions, such as deciding what to eat or whether to exercise, have a profound effect on our long-term health. Both stress and a diagnosis of certain psychiatric disorders are two factors which can impact these decisions often resulting in detrimental health outcomes. BETTERCHOICES will investigate the biological mechanisms of this altered decision making and test the effectiveness of a behavioural strategy which aims to improve decision making. In STUDY 1, I will investigate how pharmacological increases in two key stress related neuromodulators - cortisol and noradrenaline - affect participant's willingness to exert effort to obtain rewards (RO1). Additionally, I will test whether precommitment can buffer the detrimental effects of increases in cortisol and noradrenaline action on effort-based decisions (RO2). Precommitment involves pre-emptively restricting one’s future choice set to improve decision making, yet we do not know how or if people use this strategy under stress or in psychiatric disorders. In STUDY 2, I will develop a novel task, the precommit-to-eat paradigm, to precisely quantify the individual effectiveness of precommitment when participants make food choices (RO3). This paradigm will then be used to test the effectiveness of precommitment in patients with a diagnosis of depression or schizophrenia during a non-academic placement in a psychiatric clinic. During the non-academic placement, I will also implement a psychoeducation program to help patients make better health decisions using behavioural strategies, such as precommitment. By using an interdisciplinary approach and combining methodologies from psychopharmacology and behavioural economics, BETTERCHOICES will provide novel insights into how we make decisions under stress. The project will also help to improve everyday decision making both in healthy participants and in psychiatric disorders thereby promoting better health outcomes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
40225 Dusseldorf
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.