Luisa Prochazkova is a PhD candidate at the Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel and Dr. Roberta Sellaro. In her PhD project, funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant, she is working on the questions of how cognitive control affects the interplay between so-called intentional and automatic processes. In particular she investigates how the the ability to maintain behavioral goals is dictated by current metacontrol state bias and how is such bias induced. To this end, Luisa studies the effect of drugs (psychedelics/microdosing), meditation, changes in the autonomic nervous system and reward processing on the metacontrol policies.

Furthermore, Luisa works on a part-time project with the aim to improve on existing VR-mindfulness games by implementing biofeedback to monitor and aid emotional responses and psychophysiological states during training. The project is possible thanks to funding awarded from Technology Agency-Czech Republic and thanks to a collaborative effort among researchers from Leiden University, clinicians at National Institute of Mental Health in Prague (NUDZ) and industry partners (Xlab.cz)