Neural Origins of Temperamental Risk for Anxiety

项目摘要 焦虑症影响了三分之一的美国人口，给个人和社会带来了沉重的负担。 虽然焦虑症的发病率在青春期末期达到顶峰，但它起源于婴儿和儿童早期。 性情。此外，除了预测日后焦虑的风险外，早期的气质甚至更强烈 预测以后焦虑的神经关联。因此，气质可能是一种持久的神经“风险”。 签名。“准确地刻画这个签名可能会产生有助于减轻负担的知识 长期的心理健康问题。然而，大多数研究量化了老年人的这种神经风险特征 无论是孩子还是成年人。因此，目前尚不清楚这种涉及性情和大脑的风险信号 功能，表现在婴儿期，然后预测以后的行为。在这里，我们建议招募一个典型的样本 对3-5个月大的婴儿进行筛查，以识别负面反应气质，表征他们的大脑 使用磁共振成像(MRI)的网络，并在13-15个月时评估他们的行为抑制(BI) 年纪大了。我们之前的工作使用新奇诱发的运动活动和行为困扰来量化气质 偏见称为负反应性。这种偏向预示着在早期避免不熟悉的刺激或背景 童年，一种被称为BI的模式。BI反过来又与大脑突起和腹侧的功能有关 关注网络。此外，BI是预测后来的焦虑症的最好的儿童早期行为指标， 这些情况也与突显和腹侧注意网络的功能有关。我们将测试 婴儿期早期行为评估的负面反应与减退有关的假说 与非反应性婴儿相比，突显和腹侧注意网络中的功能连接。识别 婴儿时期负性反应增强的神经基础以及与BI的联系将阐明 发展焦虑的风险的神经生物学来源。

Project Summary Anxiety disorders affect one third of the US population, significantly burdening individuals and society. Although rates peak in late adolescence, anxiety disorders have origins in infant and early childhood temperament. Moreover, beyond predicting risk for later anxiety, early temperament even more strongly predicts later neural correlates of anxiety. As such, temperament may identify an enduring neural “risk signature.” Precisely characterizing this signature may generate knowledge that would help reduce the burden of long-term mental health problems. However, most research quantifies such neural risk signatures in older children and adults. Thus, it remains unclear whether such a risk signature, involving temperament and brain function, manifests in infancy before predicting later behavior. Here, we propose to recruit a sample of typically developing 3-5-month-old infants screened to identify negative reactive temperament, characterize their brain networks using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and assess their Behavioral Inhibition (BI) at 13-15 months of age. Our prior work uses novelty-evoked motor activity and behavioral distress to quantify a temperamental bias called negative reactivity. This bias predicts later avoidance of unfamiliar stimuli or contexts during early childhood, a pattern called BI. BI, in turn, is associated with functioning in the brain’s salience and ventral attention networks. Moreover, BI is the best early-child behavioral predictor of later anxiety disorders, conditions also associated with functioning in the salience and ventral attention networks. We will test the hypothesis that behaviorally assessed negative reactivity in early infancy is associated with decreased functional connectivity in the salience and ventral attention networks relative to non-reactive infants. Identifying the neural underpinnings of heightened negative reactivity in infancy and links to BI will elucidate the neurobiological origins of risk for the development of anxiety.