FMRI Assessment of Attention and Memory in PTSD

描述（由申请人提供）：该奖项的PI是Rajendra A。他是杜克大学精神病学系的临床助理，在杜克大学脑成像和分析中心担任主要教职。格雷戈里·麦卡锡和乔纳森·戴维森博士将担任导师。候选人的短期职业目标是扩大他在（a）神经生物学和功能神经解剖学基础PTSD（B）功能神经成像研究方法（c）在PTSD研究中使用心理测量工具（d）生物统计学（d）负责任地进行以患者为导向的研究。他的长期目标是开发一个高质量的研究项目，利用功能性脑成像来阐明认知和情感过程在PTSD发病和治疗中的作用。候选人将通过整合教学法，研究生课程，定向阅读，教程，评论文章的创作，并通过临床研究项目管理，granimetry和研究伦理的培训来促进他的教育目标。PTSD的特征在于三个主要特征：（i）通过频繁的记忆和侵入性想法重温创伤经历，（ii）避免创伤事件的提醒，（iii）过度觉醒的慢性状态;这些可能在严重的心理创伤后发展，影响约8%的美国人口。注意力和记忆力受损是与PTSD相关的最一致的神经认知发现，但这些缺陷的神经基础尚未得到很好的理解，需要进一步研究。本研究的目的是研究与PTSD相关的情绪失调对注意力和记忆力神经相关性的影响。本研究的三个主要目的是使用功能性MRI来描述创伤后应激障碍患者的情绪与（i）自愿注意力、（ii）非自愿注意力和（iii）记忆的相互作用。先前测试的认知挑战将用于fMRI环境中，以量化PTSD患者、创伤对照组和健康对照组之间的任务相关激活。将研究功能磁共振成像测量与神经心理学和临床测量之间的相关性。从这项研究中获得的证据预计将进一步PTSD领域和我们的功能神经回路，有助于注意力和记忆缺陷的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The PI for this award is Rajendra A. Morey, a Clinical Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University with a primary faculty appointment at the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Drs. Gregory McCarthy and Jonathan Davidson will serve as mentors. The candidate's short-term career goals are to broaden his understanding in (a) neurobiology and functional neuroanatomy underlying PTSD (b) functional neuroimaging research methodology (c) use of psychometric tools in PTSD research (d) biostatistics (d) responsible conduct of patient oriented research. His long-term goals are to develop a high quality research program that utilizes functional brain imaging to clarify the role of cognitive and emotion processes in the onset and treatment of PTSD. The candidate will facilitate his educational objectives by integrating didactics, graduate courses, directed readings, tutorials, authoring of review articles and augmented by training in clinical research program management, grantsmanship, and research ethics. PTSD is characterized by three cardinal features: (i) reliving the traumatic experience through frequent memories and intrusive thoughts, (ii) avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event, (iii) a chronic state of hyperarousal; these may develop in the aftermath of severe psychological trauma and affect approximately 8% of the US population. Impaired attention and memory are the most consistently reported neurocognitive findings associated with PTSD, yet the neural basis of these deficits is not well understood and warrants further investigation. The goal of this proposal is to investigate the impact of emotional dysregulation associated with PTSD on the neural correlates of attention and memory. The three principle aims of this study are to use functional MRI to describe the interaction of emotion with (i) voluntary attention, fii) involuntary attention, and (iii) memory in patients with PTSD. Previously tested cognitive challenges will be used in the fMRI environment to quantify task related activation between PTSD patients, trauma controls, and healthy controls. Correlations between fMRI measures and neuropsychological and clinical measures will be investigated. The evidence gained from this study is expected to further the field of PTSD and our understanding of the functional neural circuits that contribute to attention and memory deficits.