Brain Development Following Institutionalization

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary objective of this revised application is to examine the effects of varying degrees of stress in the timing and duration of institutionalization on the development of amygdala and hippocampal structure and function in children adopted from orphanages abroad. The Department of State estimates tens of thousands of children are now being adopted from orphanages abroad each year. With this growing number of adopted children in the U.S., has come increasing concern on the long-term consequences of such early experiences on development. The proposed program of research is based on a cohort of children who have been adopted to the New York metropolitan area over the past decade and who are now between 6 and 11 years of age. We are using behavioral and noninvasive biological measures of the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis with emphasis on imaging based measures of amygdala and hippocampal structure and function. Children with varying exposures to institutionalization (duration) will be compared to a control group as well as to each other, as they may be their own best controls with regard to environmental factors inherent in human "deprivation" studies. We will recruit a typically developing population of children to assess deviations or delays in the development of amygdala and hippocampal volume and function.