During our life, we face different situations that we can perceive as stressful (for example: a job
interview or an exam). Before and during the confrontation with these stressful situations, some
important changes occur in our mind and body: we feel more anxious and less happy, our heart
starts to beat faster, and our body produces more cortisol (the so-called hormone of stress). If
these reactions are too extreme (for example too much anxiety, heartbeat and cortisol levels), it
can hamper our health. People can control these psychological and physiological reactions to
some extent, but some people will do this better than others. A person that has problems with
controlling these mind and bodily changes is at risk of important health problems (for example
depression). In this project, our goal is to investigate how people can control their mind and body
changes before and during a stressful situation. Specifically, we will investigate how a brain area
(called Prefrontal cortex) and a cognitive process (called cognitive control) participates in the
control of the stress reactions. This project is important because stress is worldwide a major cause
of disease burden, and our results may be useful to develop new psychological therapies and
prevention programmes.