Interparental Conflict And Functional Neural Networks In Infancy

描述(由申请人提供)：父母之间的冲突是一种常见的早期环境应激源，对情绪发展和精神病理风险具有潜在的长期后果。目前的研究结果表明，父母之间的冲突与婴儿期情绪调节的行为和生理指标有关(Crockenberg，Leerkes，&Lekka，2007；Moore，2010)。此外，与婴儿期冲突有关的生物系统的差异已被确定为使学龄儿童暴露在冲突中的风险的调节因素(El-Sheikh等人，2009年)。然而，研究人员还没有解释婴儿时期暴露在冲突中可能会如何“潜移默化”影响关键神经系统的发育。在这项拟议的研究中，我们将利用一种神经成像技术，即静息状态功能连接磁共振成像，来检查来自高冲突家庭和低冲突家庭的婴儿在功能神经网络方面的差异。生物应激反应系统的皮质和边缘(皮质-边缘)水平和一组已知在休息状态下更活跃的功能连接区域，默认网络(Raichle等人，2001年)将构成本研究的重点，因为有证据表明这些网络的发展与早期逆境和精神病理学的风险有关。这项工作将建立在申请者对两组6至12个月大的婴儿进行的正在进行的研究的基础上，这些儿童接受了父母间冲突的高和低筛查。在这项研究中，fMRI扫描是在婴儿自然睡眠期间进行的。这项拟议的调查的目的是检查，在来自高冲突家庭的婴儿中，参与情绪反应的皮质-边缘网络区域是否在功能上与调节过程中的重要区域联系较少。我们还将调查以前在早产儿(Smyser等人，2010年)中显示的较少建立的默认网络区域之间的功能连接是否会在来自高冲突家庭的婴儿中不那么强。目前的研究代表着朝着检查常见的早期环境应激源的方向迈出了一步，从神经网络的潜在后果来看，神经网络已经牵涉到精神健康障碍。最终，这样的工作可能有助于确定预防和干预的目标，并为在生物水平上降低风险的方案评估提供基础。拟议的研究金培训涵盖环境风险背景下的应激神经生物学、具有挑战性人群的功能磁共振成像方法以及rs-fcMRI分析。培训还侧重于在翻译研究中发挥核心作用的协作过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Interparental conflict is a common early environmental stressor with potential long-term consequences for emotional development and risk for psychopathology. Current research findings suggest that interparental conflict is associated with behavioral and physiological indices of emotion regulation during infancy (Crockenberg, Leerkes, & Lekka, 2007; Moore, 2010). Further, differences in biological systems associated with conflict during infancy have been identified as moderators of risk for school-aged children exposed to conflict (El-Sheikh et al., 2009). However, researchers have not yet explicated how exposure to conflict during infancy may get "under the skin" to affect development of key neural systems. In the proposed study, we will utilize a neuroimaging technique, resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging, to examine differences in functional neural networks between infants from high and low conflict families. The cortical and limbic (cortico-limbic) level of the biological stress response system and a set of functionally connected regions known to be more activated during rest states, the default network (Raichle et al., 2001), will constitute the focus of this study due to evidence linking the development of these networks both to early adversity and to risk for psychopathology. This work will build on the applicant's ongoing study of two groups of 6- to 12-month- olds screened for high and low interparental conflict. Within this study, fMRI scans are conducted with infants during natural sleep. The purpose of the proposed investigation is to examine whether, among infants from high conflict families, regions of the cortico-limbic network involved in emotional reactivity are less functionally connected to regions important for regulatory processes. We will also investigate whether functional connectivity between regions of the default network previously shown to be less established in preterm infants (Smyser et al., 2010) will be less strong in infants from high conflict families. The current study represents a step towards examining common early environmental stressors in terms of potential consequences for neural networks that have been implicated in mental health disorders. Eventually, such work may facilitate the identification of targets for prevention and intervention and provide a basis for program evaluation in terms of reducing risk at a biological level. The proposed fellowship training covers stress neurobiology in the context of environmental risk, fMRI methods with challenging populations, and rs-fcMRI analyses. Training also focuses on the collaborative process that plays a central role in translational research.