Assessment of Cognitive Neurodevelopment in Children with Cerebral Palsy in China

描述（由申请人提供）：该计划资助的目标是在加州大学圣地亚哥分校和北京师范大学，中华人民共和国（P.R.）的科学家之间形成跨学科的合作。中国），以增加在中国进行神经发育障碍研究的能力。中国，并推进对早期神经中断对儿童认知发展影响的基本认识。该补助金的重点是脑性瘫痪（CP）的神经发育障碍，其最常见的形式，痉挛性双瘫（SDCP）。SDCP是一种下肢痉挛的运动障碍，由产前白色物质损伤破坏皮质脊髓运动纤维引起。由于SDCP是根据运动缺陷诊断的，并且主要作为运动障碍进行研究，因此对其对认知和持续大脑发育的影响知之甚少。CP在国际上普遍存在，在P.R.中国是世界上人口最多的国家，3.250的发病率提出了一个紧迫的问题。与此同时，人口规模和高发生率提供了一个机会，研究SDCP作为神经发育病理学模型，并检查早期和坦率的大脑生长中断对认知结果的影响。该补助金的具体目的是帮助建立一个基础设施，为神经心理学和发展认知神经科学研究与儿科患者群体在P.R.中国进行试点研究，以证明在中国评估SDCP儿童认知发展的可行性。中国本项目研究了SDCP儿童的认知能力及其功能和结构神经相关性。这项研究的重点是儿童的视觉空间能力，被证明是与SDCP妥协，并将检查视觉空间过程的基本功能组织。为了确定儿童的认知障碍是否是视觉空间处理所特有的，我们还将检查语言表现，其特征在于SDCP。认知能力的检查使用标准化测试和专门设计用于探测视觉空间和语言能力的实验测量的组合。将使用功能性磁共振成像（FMRI）检查大脑调节视觉空间过程的功能组织，并使用扩散张量磁共振成像评估结缔白色物质束的结构完整性。该项目的长期目标是为未来的R01赠款奠定基础，该赠款将提出可以进行经验测试的干预措施，旨在促进SDCP儿童的认知发展。这个项目的发现也将告知我们的知识的基本原则，大脑发育和可塑性后，早期侮辱使用CP作为一个模型的调查。公共卫生相关性：这个项目的目的是增加我们对一种国际流行的神经发育障碍，痉挛性脑瘫的认知和大脑发育的理解。由于对这种运动障碍中的认知障碍知之甚少，因此描述这些缺陷是干预的重要第一步。这个项目也将告知我们的知识，大脑发育和可塑性的一般原则后，早期的侮辱。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this planning grant is to form an interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists at the University of California, San Diego and Beijing Normal University, People's Republic of China (P.R. China) to increase the capacity for the study of neurodevelopmental disorders in P.R. China and advance the basic understanding of the effect that early neural disruption has on cognitive development in children. This grant focuses on the neurodevelopmental disorder of cerebral palsy (CP) in its most common form, spastic diplegia (SDCP). SDCP is a motor disorder of spasticity in the lower limbs that results from prenatal white matter lesions that disrupt cortical-spinal motor fibers. Since SDCP is diagnosed based on motor deficits and has been mainly studied as a motor disorder, relatively little is known about its effects on cognitive and ongoing brain development. CP is internationally prevalent and in P.R. China, which has the world's largest national population, an incident rate of 3.250 presents an urgent problem. At the same time, the scale of the population and high occurrence provides an opportunity to study SDCP as a model of neurodevelopmental pathology and to examine the effects of early and frank disruption of brain growth on cognitive outcome. The specific aims of this grant are to assist in building an infrastructure for neuropsychology and developmental cognitive neuroscience research with pediatric patient populations in P.R. China and to conduct pilot studies to demonstrate the feasibility of assessing cognitive development in children with SDCP in P.R. China. This project studies the profile of cognitive abilities, and their functional and structural neural correlates in a well defined population of children with SDCP. The study focuses on children's visuospatial abilities, shown to be compromised with SDCP, and will examine the underlying functional organization of visuospatial processes. To determine whether or not children's cognitive impairments are specific to visuospatial processing, we will also examine language performance, which has been characterized as being spared with SDCP. The examination of cognitive abilities uses a combination of standardized tests and experimental measures that are specifically designed to probe visuospatial and language abilities. The functional organization of the brain for mediation of visuospatial processes will be examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and the structural integrity of connective white matter tracts will be assessed with diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. The long-term goal of the project is to lay the foundation for a future R01 grant that will propose interventions that can be tested empirically and are designed to facilitate cognitive development in children with SDCP. The findings from this project will also inform our knowledge of the fundamental principles of brain development and plasticity following early insult using CP as one model of inquiry. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project aims to increase our understanding of cognitive and brain development in an internationally prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder, spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. Since little is known about the cognitive impairments indicated in this motor disorder, characterizing these deficits is an important first step toward intervention. This project will also inform our knowledge of the general principles of brain development and plasticity following early insult.