Imaging Cognitive Control in Cocaine Dependence

描述（由申请人提供）：此K 02应用程序寻求支持，这是候选人的继续培训和职业发展在药物滥用研究必不可少的。在NIDA和NIH的指导职业奖的支持下，候选人在认知和成像神经科学方面积累了相当多的专业知识。他的研究结合了功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和实验心理学，描绘了认知控制的组成神经过程，这是导致可卡因依赖患者复发的关键因素。他已经获得了独立的资金来研究认知控制的神经过程的改变，以及这些缺陷如何预测可卡因依赖患者随访期间的药物使用行为。与耶鲁大学正电子发射断层扫描（PET）中心的同事合作，他还建议检查与这些患者认知控制改变相关的分子基础。因此，候选人建议接受以下方面的系统培训：（a）先进数据，包括功能磁共振成像的连通性分析;（B）PET成像方法和程序;（c）神经精神药理学;（d）临床治疗结果和复发研究;（e）伦理学和人类受试者研究培训，以增强其在物质使用障碍方面进行转化和临床研究的知识和技能。他将通过在获奖期间专注于三个项目来获得专业知识。在R 01项目中，他将阐明可卡因依赖患者复发的神经预测因素。在R 03项目中，他将研究这些神经过程在患者与海洛因诱导可卡因渴望。他还积极寻求资金，以研究去甲肾上腺素能神经传递的调节作为可卡因渴望期间“失控”的分子基础。因此，这个K 02奖是至关重要的候选人接受所需的额外培训，以执行拟议的研究，扩大他的研究范围，并保持在他的发展成为一个领先的研究药物滥用研究生产力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K02 application seeks support that is essential for the candidate's continued training and career development in substance abuse research. With the support of mentored career awards both from the NIDA and the NIH, the candidate has developed considerable expertise in cognitive and imaging neuroscience. His has shown a record of publication in combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and experimental psychology to delineate the component neural processes of cognitive control, a critical factor contributing to relapse in cocaine dependent patients. He has obtained independent funding to investigate the altered neural processes of cognitive control and how these deficits may predict drug use behavior during follow-up of patients with cocaine dependence. Collaborating with colleagues at the Yale Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center, he is also proposing to examine the molecular bases in association with altered cognitive control in these patients. Thus, the candidate has proposed a systematic training in (a) advanced data including connectivity analysis of fMRI; (b) PET imaging methodology and procedure; (c) neuropsychopharmacology; (d) clinical treatment outcome and relapse study; and (e) ethics and human subject study training to enhance his knowledge and skills in performing translational and clinical research in substance use disorders. He will acquire the expertise by focusing on three projects during the award period. In the R01 project he will elucidate the neural predictors of relapse in cocaine dependent patients. In the R03 project he will examine these neural processes in the patients with pharmacologically induced cocaine craving. He is also actively seeking funding to examine the regulation of noradrenergic neurotransmission as a molecular basis of "loss of control" during cocaine craving. Thus, this K02 award is vital for the candidate to receive additional training required to perform the proposed research, to broaden his research scope, and to remain productive in his development into a leading investigator in substance abuse research.