Cognitive Correlates of Childhood Anxiety Disorders

描述(申请人提供)：这份K23提案是一项为期5年的计划，旨在将候选人--一名儿童精神病学家--培养成一名独立研究人员，研究儿童焦虑症的认知基础。长期目标是成为一名学术研究人员，负责儿童焦虑症的发展、行为和神经研究。这项工作将提高对病理生理学的认识，并导致更好的预防、评估和治疗方法。主要培训目标是在认知科学和发展科学方面打下坚实的基础；次要培训目标是学习功能磁共振成像方法、统计学和焦虑研究工具。这些技能将使应聘者能够使用认知范式和功能磁共振成像进行基于临床的发育研究，以研究儿童焦虑的行为和神经基础。这些目标将通过：1)认知心理学、功能磁共振成像和统计学的课程工作；2)在临床/研究环境中进行广泛的指导；以及3)执行两项相关研究，这将有助于更多的研究调查认知和焦虑之间的发展关系。该项目的具体目标是检验：1)患有和不患有焦虑症的8-12岁儿童在两个认知过程中的行为差异，即威胁感知和情绪记忆，以及2)神经差异，特别是在构成这些认知过程的杏仁核、眶前皮质(OFC)和前扣带(ACC)。这些目标是基于先前的动物、成人和儿童的初步数据，这些数据揭示了焦虑和自我报告的恐惧、记忆和这三个大脑区域的神经生理学变化之间的强烈关联。中心假设是，儿童焦虑症与对威胁刺激的感知和记忆增强有关，这些行为偏差与杏仁核、OFC和ACC活动增强相关。国际知名的发展认知心理学家麦琪·布鲁克博士将担任主要导师。一个由8名专家组成的小组将各自提供对候选人发展至关重要的领域的专门培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K23 proposal is a 5-year plan to develop the candidate, a child psychiatrist, into an independent researcher investigating the cognitive underpinnings of childhood anxiety disorders. The long-term goals are to become an academic researcher conducting developmental behavioral and neural studies of childhood anxiety disorders. This work will advance knowledge of pathophysiology, and lead to better prevention, assessment, and treatment methods. The primary training objective is to develop a firm grounding in the cognitive and developmental sciences; the secondary training objectives are to learn fMRI methods, statistics, and anxiety research instruments. These skills will enable the candidate to conduct clinically oriented developmentally-based research using cognitive paradigms and fMRI to study the behavioral and neural underpinnings of childhood anxiety. These objectives will be achieved through: 1) coursework in cognitive psychology, fMRI, and statistics; 2) extensive mentorship in a clinical/research environment, and 3) execution of two related studies that will contribute to a larger body of research investigating developmental relationships between cognition and anxiety. The specific aims of the project are to examine: 1) behavioral differences in 2 cognitive processes, threat perception and emotional memory, in 8 to 12 year old children with and without anxiety disorders, and 2) neural differences, particularly in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and anterior cingulate (ACC) that underlie these cognitive processes. The aims are based on prior animal, adult, and preliminary child data that reveal strong associations between anxiety and selfreported fear, memory, and neurophysiologic changes in these three brain regions. The central hypothesis is that childhood anxiety disorders are associated with enhanced perception and memory for threat stimuli, and that these behavioral biases correlate with enhanced amygdalar, OFC, and ACC activity. Dr. Maggie Bruck, an internationally renowned developmental cognitive psychologist, will serve as the primary mentor. A panel of 8 experts will each provide specialized training in an area that is critical to the candidate's development.