Cognitive Correlates of Childhood Anxiety Disorders

儿童焦虑症的认知相关性

• 批准号: 7070668
• 负责人: ROMA A VASA
• 金额: $ 17.84万
• 依托单位: HUGO W. MOSER RES INST KENNEDY KRIEGER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7070668
• 关键词: amygdala; anxiety disorders; behavioral /social science research tag; brain mapping; child mental disorders; child psychology; cingulate gyrus; clinical research; cognition; fear; frontal lobe /cortex; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; memory; mental health epidemiology; middle childhood (6-11); psychopathology; statistics /biometry

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.

描述（由申请人提供）：本K23提案是一个5年计划，旨在将儿童精神病学家候选人发展成为一名独立的研究人员，研究儿童焦虑症的认知基础。他的长期目标是成为一名从事儿童焦虑症发育行为和神经研究的学术研究人员。这项工作将促进病理生理学的知识，并导致更好的预防，评估和治疗方法。主要训练目标是在认知和发展科学方面打下坚实的基础；次要训练目标是学习功能磁共振成像方法、统计学和焦虑研究工具。这些技能将使候选人能够进行临床导向的基于发展的研究，使用认知范式和功能磁共振成像来研究儿童焦虑的行为和神经基础。这些目标将通过以下途径实现：1)认知心理学、功能磁共振成像和统计学课程；2)在临床/研究环境中广泛的指导，3)执行两项相关研究，这将有助于研究认知和焦虑之间的发展关系。该项目的具体目的是检查：1)8至12岁儿童在有和没有焦虑症的两种认知过程（威胁感知和情绪记忆）中的行为差异；2)神经差异，特别是杏仁核、眶额叶皮质（OFC）和前扣带（ACC）在这些认知过程中的基础。目的是基于先前的动物、成人和儿童的初步数据，这些数据揭示了焦虑与自我报告的恐惧、记忆和这三个大脑区域的神经生理变化之间的强烈联系。核心假设是，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活性增强有关。国际知名发展认知心理学家Maggie Bruck博士将担任主要导师。一个由8位专家组成的小组将在对候选人发展至关重要的领域提供专业培训。