Mission Statement

SAVOR stands for “Sources of Affective Vulnerability Or Resilience.” The long-term goal of the SAVOR project is to better understand the relationship between genetics and stressful experience and how these two factors may interact to influence the way people process emotional information. This is a very important goal, since certain biases in information processing have been linked to mood and anxiety disorders (like Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, among others). Though mood and anxiety disorders are extremely common and severely disabling, little is known about how and why they develop.

By elucidating some of the genetic and environmental underpinnings of information processing biases, this project may eventually help researchers and clinicians better identify people who are at risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. Early identification of vulnerable individuals, in turn, may help in designing more effective interventions and treatments for at-risk or affected individuals.