Understanding Emotion and Social Impairment in Schizophrenia

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for an Independent Scientist Award (K02) that would enable the PI to further develop his research on emotional and social impairment within schizophrenia. The career development plan will allow the PI to obtain training in affective and social neuroscience research that can then serve as the basis for additional translational research in the study and treatment of schizophrenia. This training will involve the following interrelated areas: developmental perspectives on peer relationship formation and socialization, developmental approaches to the understanding of individual differences in temperament and emotion, psychophysiological methods in the study of emotion, and social neuroscience approaches to the study of social behavior and emotion. These career development goals will be met through consultation, research activities, and collaborations with senior researchers in the areas of developmental psychology, basic emotion research, and social neuroscience. Classroom and technical training as well as attendance at scientific meetings and workshops will complement these consulting activities. The proposed didactic and career development activities are closely coupled with the research plan that is, in part, based on the PI's current funded research on anhedonia in schizophrenia and schizotypy (R01 MH512460). Ongoing and planned research will focus on understanding how emotion is altered in schizotypy and schizophrenia including how these emotional changes contribute to disturbances in affiliation and resulting social impairment. This research will span community samples involving schizophrenia-spectrum disorders as well as planned studies on schizophrenia. In sum, an Independent Scientist Award will provide the needed protected time for the PI to develop new skills in the study of emotion and social behavior from a basic science perspective. These new skills will be applied by the PI to future translational research aimed at understanding the profound emotional and social deficits occurring in schizophrenia and will have direct benefit to the development of future interventions in schizophrenia.