Hormonal contraception has been linked to changes in brain function and socio-affective processes, including mood and emotion cognition. These effects, however, remain poorly understood due to limitations in previous studies, such as reliance on cross-sectional designs and a lack of focus on synthetic sex hormone concentrations. This project seeks to bridge these gaps by examining how starting or discontinuing oral contraceptives (OCs) affects brain function and socio-affective processes, with a focus on their neuroendocrinological substrates.

 

In this project, we combine advanced neuroimaging techniques, including functional and effective connectivity analyses, with endocrinological assessments to provide novel insights into the effects of hormonal contraception on emotion perception and regulation.

 

Key Research Questions:

1. How do synthetic and endogenous hormones influence emotion perception and regulation? We aim to investigate how changes in hormonal profiles affect socio-affective brain functions.

2. What are the neural mechanisms underlying individual variability in response to hormonal contraception? Our research explores the relationship between hormonal changes and functional brain architecture, focusing on connectivity and activity-based analyses.​​