NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

Optimus Agora Prize for Carmen Sandi and Dominique de Quervain

Dominique de Quervain and Carmen Sandi are being awarded Optimus Agora Prize. Their project “Stress” encourages interaction with the public. Stress is part of everyday life. Better understanding it, and knowing how to prevent situations that cause it, improves our Read more…


covidout.ch: maintaining mental health and developing coping skills

The objective of this new web app, designed by caregivers and researchers, is to help people with temporary/reactional or chronic psychological suffering to find coping strategies to better cope with the crisis in the broadest sense: health, containment, de-confinement, post-confinement, Read more…


The Harmful Effects of Stress Unraveled – Alexandre Dayer

The 12th Synapsy newsletter is rich with interviews and portraits of students, clinical scientists and more senior researchers from the developmental stress working group of Synapsy (work package 4, WP#4). Its objective is to evaluate the long-term effect of exposure Read more…


Anti-stress meditation

Is meditation effective as an early intervention to reduce reactivity to stress and anxiety? The Mindfulteen study investigates the question using brain imaging. Mindfulness meditation is a technique borrowed from oriental medicine that consists of training oneself to be in Read more…


Breaking the transmission of trauma

Children of mothers with post-traumatic stress disorder have difficulty processing their emotions. Defining the neural bases of this dysfunction will help develop future treatments. Transmitting information, you do not have is by its very nature a tricky, even impossible, exercise. Read more…


No clinical work without understanding the basics

Silvia Monari explains the difficult choice she had to make between medicine and life sciences when deciding on what direction her studies would take. Silvia tells us how she intends to detect biomarkers of disease and possible therapeutic intervention for Read more…


Mapping the emotional management of trauma

Trauma can induce fear pathologies, which are treated using psychotherapeutic approaches whose brain pathways have recently been identified. Fear leaves traces in the brain, and remembering it causes a feeling of discomfort. During extreme trauma—such as the shock of war, Read more…


Neural signature of trait anxiety

The neurological basis of trait anxiety, a risk factor for the development of neuropsychiatric diseases, revealed by Synapsy researchers. Trait anxiety is a personality dimension related to the extent to which events are perceived as potentially threatening. The identification of Read more…


Maternal exposure to violence and child psychopathology

Synapsy has been following the children of mothers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to interpersonal violence since they were 12 months of age. They are now reaching maturity, just like research projects designed to understand and treat stress-related disorders. Read more…