Longitudinal Characterization of Functional Connectivity in Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案旨在促进Jeffrey安德森（医学博士）作为独立研究者的职业发展，以进行神经发育和神经精神疾病中功能性MR连接的纵向神经影像学研究，特别是自闭症功能性连接异常方面的专业知识。尽管申请人在脑电生理学博士培训期间拥有丰富的指导研究经验，并在功能成像方法方面拥有丰富的神经放射学培训，但他没有进行大型临床成像研究的经验，需要招募患者和评估以及对大型成像数据集进行多变量统计分析。本提案的具体研究目标是发展这些技能 通过一项关于自闭症功能连接的纵向研究。现在有大量证据表明， 大脑区域之间的功能连接异常存在于自闭症中，自闭症在童年和青春期继续发展。这些连接异常包括一个有前途的技术，用于识别自闭症亚型，预测预后，并指导治疗。然而，连接异常的机制仍然未知。该提案旨在使用自闭症功能连接的纵向调查，以确定连接障碍是否是广义的，局部化的特定路径长度的连接，或与特定的功能网络。纵向设计将允许评估这些连接异常如何在儿童晚期和青春期发展，并将利用从儿童晚期到成年早期的高功能自闭症DTI和体积扫描的最大成像数据集，允许对大脑连接进行跨模态分析。该提案的长期目标是利用申请人在数学，神经科学和临床神经影像学方面的综合培训，建立一个严格的，基础广泛的成像实验室，通过使用新的成像方法探测大脑网络中的功能连接异常，为诊断和理解神经系统疾病做出重大贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is designed to facilitate career development of Jeffrey Anderson, MD PhD as an independent investigator to conduct longitudinal neuroimaging studies of functional MR connectivity in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, with particular expertise in functional connectivity abnormalities in autism. Although the applicant has extensive mentored research experience during PhD training in electrophysiology of the brain, and extensive neuroradiological training in functional imaging methods, he has not had experience conducting large clinical imaging investigations, requiring patient recruitment and assessment and multivariate statistical analysis of large imaging datasets. The specific research aims of this proposal develop these skills through a longitudinal study of functional connectivity in autism. There is now extensive evidence that functional connectivity abnormalities between brain regions are present in autism, which continue to develop through childhood and adolescence. These connectivity abnormalities comprise a promising technique for identifying autism subtypes, predicting prognosis, and guiding treatment. Yet the mechanism for connectivity abnormalities remains unknown. This proposal seeks to use a longitudinal investigation of functional connectivity in autism to establish whether connectivity disturbances are generalized, localized to connections of specific path length, or associated with specific functional networks. The longitudinal design will allow assessment of how these connectivity abnormalities develop through late childhood and adolescence, and will leverage the largest imaging dataset of high-functioning autism DTI and volumetric scans from late childhood to early adulthood, allowing cross-modality analysis of brain connectivity. Long term goals of the proposal are to leverage the applicant's combined training in mathematics, neuroscience, and clinical neuroimaging to build a rigorous, broad-based imaging laboratory that can make major contributions to diagnosis and understanding of neurological disorders by probing functional connectivity abnormalities in brain networks using novel imaging methods.