Identification of Neural and Molecular Mechanisms of Infant Social Fear Learning

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Clinical studies report that fear emotional trauma may be transmitted across generations. Parental history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increases the child's risk of developing PTSD, whereas parental history of a specific phobia increases the risk of phobia in the offspring. Existing research suggests that social learning and memory mechanisms are involved in the intergenerational transmission of trauma. This work aims to understand the neurobiology of social fear learning in infancy. My goal is to gain insight into the circuit and molecular mechanisms of early infant social fear learning in order to develop novel preventive and therapeutic approaches that could prevent the perpetuation of trauma across generations. The overarching hypothesis that guides this work is that social fear learning mechanisms are involved in the parent-to-infant transmission of fear responses in infancy. I propose to study the neurobiology of social fear learning in infancy in a rat model as a means to identify and experimentally test potential neural and molecular pathways involved in the formation of socially transmitted threat responses. The central hypothesis for this proposal is that social fear learning in infancy is associated with epigenetic alterations of oxytocin (OT) signaling in the amygdala. Two specific aims are proposed to test the overarching and central hypotheses: 1) to determine the role of the hypothalamus-amygdala neural pathway in the transmission of maternal fear in infancy, 2) to determine the role of epigenetic alterations of the OT-ergic system in the infant's amygdala during the mother to infant social transmission of fear. As an academic child and adolescent psychiatrist, I have clinical and research interests in early childhood trauma and anxiety disorders. As a faculty member at the University of Michigan, my clinical specialty is treating children with anxiety disorders, as well as treating women (many of them with a history of emotional trauma and PTSD) during the perinatal period. My research program will study the circuit and molecular mechanisms of early childhood trauma and intergenerational transmission of trauma in infancy. The Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and the Department of Psychiatry have a world-class faculty and facilities. In particular, I will benefit from thoughtful, 'hands-on' mentoring and instruction by experienced scientists and clinicians who are deeply committed to my future academic and research success.