Project description
Mechanistic insight into mindfulness and chronic stress
Chronic stress is associated with changes in the brain and the immune system that create a high risk for problems with mental and physical health. Mindfulness can protect our health against stress, but it remains unclear how that happens. The EU-funded INSPIRER project will develop and test a model that can reveal psychological, neural and immune mechanisms of mindfulness interventions. This model can further be applied to identify which interventions are the most effective in mitigating the effect of chronic stress and protecting human health.
Objective
Lifetime stress and trauma have detrimental consequences on the brain and immune system in the form of chronic inflammation that increases risk for the majority of leading causes of morbidity in Europe, such as cardiovascular diseases. Mindfulness interventions seem to be able to counteract the effects of chronic stress, and to protect mental and physical health, but the underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. This fellowship aims to test and further develop an interdisciplinary framework (INSPIRER) that integrates psychological, neural, genomic and immune mechanisms of mindfulness interventions. To this aim, three studies will be conducted. First, a systematic review of the extant evidence that supports the INSPIRER will be conducted. Second, long-term mindfulness meditators will be compared with non-meditators in terms of neural and immune outcome measures in a cross-sectional study. Third, these outcomes will be used to compare an 8-week mindfulness intervention with an active control group through a randomised controlled trial. The studies will apply methods from psychology (a computerised cognitive task and questionnaires), neuroscience (structural and functional MRI) and immunology (biomarkers of inflammation). In addition to testing the neural and immune mechanisms, the two empirical studies will include an experimental induction of either physiological stress or social stress to directly test if mindfulness increases resilience. The INSPIRER has the potential to influence several research areas, as well to provide practical guidelines about which interventions are the most effective in mitigating the effects of chronic stress and concomitant inflammation. Besides conducting three studies, this fellowship will include extensive training across disciplines that will get me closer to my long-term goal of creating a strong network of collaborators in Europe and becoming a leading academic in mind-body interventions and stress.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- social sciences psychology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases
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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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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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.
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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.