Training At the Interface of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Genetics

心理学、神经科学和遗传学交叉领域的培训

• 批准号: 8338324
• 负责人: Deanna Barch
• 金额: $ 26.79万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8338324
• 关键词: Genetic; Neurosciences; Psychology; Training

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of our training program is to develop basic behavioral scientists with rigorous broad- based training in two biomedical sciences - neuroscience and genetics. To do this we developed a training program that focuses on the interface of psychology, neuroscience, and genetics. Trainees have been pre-doctoral students - 6 per year - with a strong interest in understanding human behavior from a biomedical perspective. The training program includes fairly equal participation from faculty in Washington University's Psychology, Neuroscience, and Genetics programs. The training program provides students with systematic exposure to the behavioral perspectives from psychology, integrated with biomedical perspectives from systems and computational neuroscience along with behavioral, molecular, statistical genetics, and genomics. The goal is to train young scientists who are able to apply concepts and methods from basic biomedical sciences to the study of behavioral phenomenon, such as memory, attention, decision making, and other cognitive functions, behavioral disorders, schizophrenia, alcoholism, aging, and problems with emotion regulation, and basic social phenomenon such as personality, attitudes, and social cognition. This training program provides benefits to trainees who are interested in research crossing traditional academic boundaries between psychology and two of the most important and exciting biomedical sciences - neuroscience and genetics. Educational opportunities of this kind are rare, and the unique nature of this training program makes our graduates attractive candidates for top post-doctoral or faculty positions in bio-behavioral programs at other universities. There are also benefits to the fields of neuroscience and genetics research, in which new lines of behavioral investigation are being opened (e.g., the Human Connectome Project, a large part of which is based at Washington University). Finally, through the process of recruiting and training students in research at the "interface of psychology, neuroscience, and genetics," the core faculty members of the training program also benefit because the program fosters collaborative research endeavors among the very diverse set of Washington University faculty participating in the training program. This competing renewal application requests support for another 5-year period of training, to continue pre-doctoral support at six trainees per year. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative Our successful IPNG training program brings together new groups of researchers and laboratories to address behavioral questions using innovative combinations of biomedical approaches. Perhaps more importantly, it trains a new generation of mainly behavioral scientists who are able to overcome major hurdles in understanding how the brain controls mental function, how genes contribute to understanding the brain, and how both relate to dysfunction due to injury, disease, developmental perturbation, or degeneration. As can be seen from the bio-sketches of the mentors, most are conducting primary research on the neural or genetic underpinnings of specific diseases (e.g., alcoholism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's), and most of the mentors from the biomedical sciences are physically located at the Washington University Medical School, so all pre-doctoral trainees have the opportunity to become involved in research directly related to human health and disease.

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的培训计划的目标是培养基本的行为科学家，在两个生物医学科学-神经科学和遗传学方面进行严格的广泛培训。为了做到这一点，我们开发了一个培训计划，重点是心理学，神经科学和遗传学的接口。受训人员是博士预科生-每年6名-对从生物医学角度理解人类行为有浓厚的兴趣。培训计划包括华盛顿大学心理学、神经科学和遗传学课程的教师公平参与。该培训计划为学生提供了系统的接触从心理学的行为观点，从系统和计算神经科学与行为，分子，统计遗传学和基因组学沿着生物医学的观点相结合。目标是培养能够将基础生物医学科学的概念和方法应用于行为现象研究的年轻科学家，如记忆，注意力，决策和其他认知功能，行为障碍，精神分裂症，酗酒，衰老和情绪调节问题，以及基本的社会现象，如个性，态度和社会认知。该培训计划为那些对跨越心理学和两个最重要和最令人兴奋的生物医学科学-神经科学和遗传学之间的传统学术界限的研究感兴趣的学员提供了好处。这种教育机会是罕见的，这种培训计划的独特性质使我们的毕业生在其他大学的生物行为计划的顶尖博士后或教师职位的有吸引力的候选人。神经科学和遗传学研究领域也有好处，其中正在开辟新的行为研究路线（例如，人类连接组计划，其中很大一部分是基于华盛顿大学）。最后，通过招募和培训学生在“心理学，神经科学和遗传学的接口”的研究过程中，培训计划的核心教师也受益，因为该计划促进了参与培训计划的华盛顿大学教师之间的合作研究努力。这种竞争性的更新申请要求支持另一个5年的培训期，以继续每年6名学员的博士前支持。 公共卫生相关性：我们成功的IPNG培训计划汇集了新的研究人员和实验室团队，使用生物医学方法的创新组合来解决行为问题。也许更重要的是，它培养了新一代的主要行为科学家，他们能够克服理解大脑如何控制心理功能的主要障碍，基因如何有助于理解大脑，以及两者如何与损伤，疾病，发育干扰或退化引起的功能障碍有关。从导师的生物草图中可以看出，大多数导师正在对特定疾病的神经或遗传基础进行初步研究（例如，此外，大部分来自生物医学科学的导师都在华盛顿大学医学院，因此所有博士预科生都有机会参与与人类健康和疾病直接相关的研究。