Developmental Neuroscience and Child Psychopathology

描述(申请人提供)：发展神经科学和精神病理学领域是一个快速增长的领域，具有极大的潜力来了解精神疾病的因果路径和机制。华盛顿大学医学院儿童精神病学分部已经准备好推出这一新颖的博士后奖学金，其基础是已经建立的与该领域相关的创新，以及拟议的多学科导师小组提供的一系列相关专业知识。从公共卫生的角度来看，在发展神经科学和精神病理学领域注入新的研究科学家是一个高度优先的问题。拟议的多学科训练方法是以一个概念模型为指导的，该模型从发展的角度审查精神病理学的情感、认知、行为、神经生物学和遗传学方面。此外，该培训计划的指导观点是认识到精神疾病的风险、发病和病程是通过大脑发育过程的复杂相互作用而产生的，这些过程受到心理社会、遗传和生物因素的影响，这些因素从子宫开始相互作用，一直持续到整个发育过程。该计划将由两名研究人员指导，他们在发育精神病理学(Joan Luby博士)和临床神经科学和功能成像(Deanna Bch博士)方面拥有互补的专业知识。华盛顿大学(Wu)的众多研究人员在儿童神经成像的许多方面都有丰富的经验记录，包括在非常早期的儿童时期出现的对功能磁共振的新关注，该研究允许检查早在学龄前阶段健康和精神疾病人群中大脑行为关系的演变。此外，华盛顿大学在精神病学遗传学方面享有国际声誉，许多研究人员可以将行为和分子遗传学方法应用于理解发育精神病理学的神经生物学。此外，项目导师拥有丰富的数据库，这些数据库来自纵向研究，其中几项研究始于儿童早期。在培训计划中，采用神经科学模型进行发展精神病理学方法的研究是一个新的和新兴的领域。该项目导师提供了一个独特的多学科培训环境，在其中追求这一令人兴奋的、专注于儿童的新领域，考虑到医学院临床和基础系儿童研究人员之间建立的合作，以及吴在神经科学和神经成像方面的项目状况，该项目一直处于发展认知和情感神经科学的前沿。此外，基础和临床发展神经科学研究人员之间的互动提供了帮助培训下一代年轻科学家的机会，他们可以从人类行为的核心心理和神经机制的角度来探讨精神病理学的发展病因学问题，这一方法可以告知并跨越精神病理学的传统边界，这是由NIMH领导的研究领域标准倡议(RDoC)的核心方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The area of developmental neuroscience and psychopathology is a rapidly growing domain with great potential to inform the understanding of the causal pathways and mechanisms of mental illness. The division of Child Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine is well poised to launch this novel post-doctoral fellowship based on already established innovations related to this domain, as well as the range of related expertise offered by the proposed multidisciplinary mentor group. From a public health perspective, an infusion of new research scientists in the area of developmental neuroscience and psychopathology is a high priority. The proposed multi-disciplinary training approach is guided by a conceptual model that examines emotional, cognitive, behavioral, neurobiological and genetic aspects of psychopathology from a developmental perspective. Further, this training program is guided by a perspective that recognizes that the risk, onset and course of psychiatric disorders arises through a complex interplay of brain developmental processes influenced by psychosocial, genetic, and biological factors that interact beginning in utero and continue throughout development. The program will be guided by two researchers with complimentary expertise in developmental psychopathology (Dr. Joan Luby) and clinical neuroscience and functional imaging (Dr. Deanna Barch). Numerous investigators at Washington University (WU) have a rich track record of experience in many aspects of child neuroimaging, including an emerging new focus on fMRI in very early childhood that allows examination of the evolution of brain behavior relationships in healthy and psychopathological populations as early as the pre-school period. Further, Washington University has an international reputation in psychiatric genetics, with many investigators who can bring both behavioral and molecular genetic approaches to bear on understanding the neurobiology of developmental psychopathology. In addition, the program mentors have a rich body of databases derived from longitudinal studies, several of which began in early childhood. Research taking a developmental psychopathology approach using a neuroscience model is a new and burgeoning area in training programs. The program mentors provide a unique multidisciplinary training environment in which to pursue this exciting new domain focused on childhood, given the established collaborations between child researchers in the School of Medicine clinical and basic departments, and the state of the program in neuroscience and neuroimaging at WU that has been at the fore front of developmental cognitive and affective neuroscience. Further, interactions between researchers in basic and clinical developmental neuroscience offers an opportunity to help train the next generation of young scientists who can pursue questions about the developmental etiology of psychopathology from the perspective of core psychological and neural mechanisms of human behavior that can inform and span traditional boundaries of psychopathology, an approach central to the Research Domain Criteria Initiative (RDOC) led by the NIMH.