Affective Deficits in Schizophrenia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development proposal is to request support to develop an integrated affective and cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate affective deficits in schizophrenia. The primary aim of the research is to functionally assess neural circuitry that is critically involved in basic processes linking emotional and cognitive information. Accurate encoding and retrieval of affective information and linkage of this experience to events and cues in memory are particularly important because they contribute to motivational states and provide information utilized for adaptive decision-making. The current research plan focuses on developing behavioral and functional imaging paradigms to assess basic memory processes that encode and recognize affective information. The proposed career development and research plans are designed to prepare the candidate to: a) design theoretically-driven tasks to probe utilization of affective information in memory, and b) use these tasks to investigate dysfuntion in neural circuitry involved in emotional and mnemonic function in individuals with schizophrenia. To achieve these goals, the candidate will pursue career development activities which focus on a) advanced training and consultation with experts in affective and cognitive neuroscience to inform assessment of new cognitive-affective stimuli and tasks, b) education and training in MR physics and advanced statistical methods to support effective use of fMRI data acquisition techniques and image analysis, and c) consultation with expert clinical affective and cognitive neuroscientists to enable sophisticated analysis and interpretation of behavioral and neuroimaging data in patient populations. Dr. John Sweeney mentors this project, with significant participation by consultants in affective neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, MR physics, and advanced statistical analysis. This training will enable the candidate to effectively integrate strategies used in affective and cognitive neuroscience paradigms to investigate deficits in affective-cognitive processes in schizophrenia, and to develop the skills and expertise necessary to continue this important line of research as an independent investigator.