Training Investigators in Neuroimaging and Neuropsychiatry of Movement Disorders

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for a Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24) is planned to allow the PI to devote 50% effort to the mentoring and research activities described. The PI is a board-certified neuropsychiatrist who completed a two-year movement disorders and neuroimaging fellowship after psychiatry residency. He has contributed new neuroimaging methods and applied them to neuropsychiatric aspects of Parkinson disease and TS. His current research includes studies in both these areas, but this application focuses on the PI's research into Tourette syndrome (TS). This includes ongoing neuroimaging studies funded by NIMH and the Tourette Syndrome Association, and new TS imaging studies are proposed for this application. The new studies build on the PI's past research, follow up on exciting leads from recently published TS research, and are planned to further develop a coordinated research program on TS in collaboration with colleagues from child neurology and child psychiatry. The PI has mentored over 40 young trainees over the years, many of them for brief summer or semester stints, but some for longer terms. In the past 3 years, 2 of the PI's longer-term clinical trainees (a psychiatry resident and a clinical neuropsychologist post-doc) have won the American Neuropsychiatric Association's Young Investigator Award for research done in his lab and for their overall career potential. The PI has now identified new M.D. research fellows and students whose training will be enhanced by additional time for the specific mentorship activities proposed herein. The institution is well known as a vibrant center for neuroscience research, and its recently awarded CTSA grant components will further support the training and research activities in this proposal. The department has committed to free the PI from his administrative duties with the medical school core psychiatry clerkship and from inpatient or consultation-liaison clinical duties in exchange for the mentorship and patient-oriented research opportunities that this K24 award will support. In short, the applicant's mentoring experience, research contributions, and near-future plans for research on TS have all arrived at the perfect moment for appropriate support from the K24.