Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Depressed Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：K23指导患者导向研究职业发展（K23）奖的总体目标是发展和提高候选人在患者导向临床研究方面的技能，使他可以成为儿童心理健康领域的独立研究者。这一目标将通过综合教育、培训和完成一项关于抑郁青少年的功能性神经影像学研究项目来实现。该候选人的主要目标是发展他在儿童情绪障碍研究方面的熟练程度，特别关注功能磁共振成像（fMRI）的利用，以阐明患有重度抑郁症（MDD）的儿童和青少年的特定神经解剖区域的大脑活动是如何改变的。为了实现这一目标，候选人将得到功能和结构MRI，儿童和青少年抑郁症，实验和研究设计以及生物统计学领域的专家的指导。此外，候选人还将参加本系的教育活动以及生物统计学，实验设计，脑成像，MRI物理和功能MRI数据分析等领域的正式课程。本研究计划的目的是研究患有重度抑郁症的男性和女性青少年的杏仁核活动与正常匹配的健康对照组相比是如何变化的。在奖励期结束时，候选人期望：(1)具备在临床研究中成为独立研究者所必需的技能；（二）作为独立调查者获得资助；(3)率先将功能MRI应用于儿童和青少年抑郁症患者的科学研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development (K23) Award is to develop and enhance the candidate's skills in patient-oriented clinical research so that he may become an independent researcher in the area of child mental health. This aim will be accomplished through a program of combined education, training, and the completion of a research project on functional neuroimaging of depressed adolescents. The candidate's major goal is to develop his proficiency in pediatric mood disorders research with a specific focus on the utilization of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to elucidate how brain activity in specific neuroanatomical regions is altered in children and adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). To achieve this goal, the candidate will be mentored by experts in the fields of functional and structural MRI, childhood and adolescent depression, experimental and research design, and biostatistics. The candidate furthermore will participate in educational activities in his department as well as formal coursework in the areas of biostatistics, experimental design, brain imaging, MRI physics, and functional MRI data analysis. The goal of the proposed research project is to study how amygdala activity is changed in depressed female and male adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder as compared to properly matched healthy control subjects. At the end of the award period, the candidate expects: (1) to possess the skills necessary to be an independent investigator in clinical research; (2) to have received funding as an independent investigator; and (3) to become a leader in the application of functional MRI to the scientific study of patients with childhood and adolescent depression.