Developmental Neuroscience and Child Psychopathology

描述（由申请人提供）：发育神经科学和精神病理学是一个快速发展的领域，在了解精神疾病的因果途径和机制方面具有巨大的潜力。华盛顿大学医学院（Washington University School of Medicine）的儿童精神病学部门已做好准备，将基于与该领域相关的已建立的创新，以及拟议的多学科导师小组提供的相关专业知识，推出这一新颖的博士后奖学金。从公共卫生的角度来看，在发育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事项。提出的多学科训练方法由一个概念模型指导，该模型从发展的角度审视精神病理学的情感、认知、行为、神经生物学和遗传方面。此外，该培训计划的指导观点是，精神疾病的风险、发病和病程是由大脑发育过程的复杂相互作用引起的，这些过程受到社会心理、遗传和生物因素的影响，这些因素从子宫开始相互作用，并持续整个发育过程。该项目将由两名研究人员指导，他们在发展精神病理学（Joan Luby博士）和临床神经科学和功能成像（Deanna Barch博士）方面具有互补的专业知识。华盛顿大学（WU）的许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，包括对儿童早期功能磁共振成像的新关注，该研究允许早在学龄前时期就检查健康和精神病理人群的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用于理解发育性精神病理学的神经生物学。此外，项目导师还拥有丰富的纵向研究数据库，其中一些是从幼儿时期开始的。利用神经科学模型研究发展精神病理学是培训项目中一个新兴的研究领域。项目导师提供了一个独特的多学科培训环境，考虑到医学院临床和基础部门的儿童研究人员之间建立的合作关系，以及吴的神经科学和神经成像项目处于发展认知和情感神经科学的前沿，该项目提供了一个独特的多学科培训环境，以追求这个令人兴奋的以儿童为重点的新领域。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一个机会，帮助培养下一代年轻科学家，他们可以从人类行为的核心心理和神经机制的角度来研究精神病理学的发育病因，这可以告诉和跨越精神病理学的传统界限，这是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.