Neurocognitive Markers of Developing Executive Control and Risk for ADHD in Preschool

学龄前儿童发展执行控制和多动症风险的神经认知标志物

• 批准号: 9094661
• 负责人: KIMBERLY Andrews ESPY
• 金额: $ 18.88万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-18 至 2018-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9094661
• 关键词: 5 year old; Address; Age; Assessment tool; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Markers; Brain; Child; Child Mental Health; Childhood; Clinical; Cognitive; Color; Complex; Data; Development; Dimensions; Event-Related Potentials; Funding; Future; Goals; Growth; Health; Hyperactive behavior; Individual; Individual Differences; Intervention; Knowledge; Laboratories; Link; Literature; Longitudinal Studies; Measures; Mental Health; Mental disorders; Metals; Methods; Modeling; Neurocognitive; Nursery Schools; Outcome; Pattern; Performance; Process; Psychopathology; Research; Response to stimulus physiology; Risk; Sampling; Shapes; Staging; Statistical Models; Stimulus; Structure; Symptoms; System; Task Performances; Time; Work; base; behavioral study; critical period; design; executive function; functional disability; heuristics; improved; innovation; nerve stem cell; neurodevelopment; neurophysiology; peer; prevent; relating to nervous system; symptomatology; temporal measurement; validation studies

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The preschool years mark a critical period for the emergence of developmental psychopathology, including symptom dimensions consistent with ADHD. However, the availability of assessment tools to effectively detect such mental health problems early in childhood is limited, in part because the early precursors and neural bases are not well understood. The preschool period is characterized by rapid neurocognitive development reflected in young children's executive control (EC) capabilities, and individual differences in EC figure prominently into mental health disorder and functional impairment, making it a potentially important candidate to target for early assessment/intervention. Recent developmental models of EC suggest that executive task performance in younger preschoolers is driven primarily by "bottom-up" stimulus/response processing before a qualitative shift occurs around age four, after which "top-down" executive processes begin to contribute to behavioral performance. It is unknown what the precise neurophysiological mechanisms of these complimentary processes are before and after this critical transition, and how they might differ in children at risk for metal health problems. The long-term goal is to explicate the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these processes across this developmental transition and understand how they relate to risk for child psychopathology. The objective of the proposed research is to characterize distinct neurophysiological signatures of the respective mechanisms in typically developing children before and after the transition, and to identify differences in these signatures in children displaying ADHD symptoms after the transition. The rationale is that this knowledge will inform how these mechanisms function at different developmental stages and in a clinical sample to lay the groundwork for future longitudinal study and intervention. The central hypothesis is that distinct neurophysiological signatures of "bottom-up" stimulus/ response processing will be identifiable before and after the transition, but neural activity related to "to-down" EC will only be observed at later ages and further be diminished in children with ADHD symptoms. The specific aims of the research are to: 1) Characterize the neurophysiological signatures of "bottom-up" and "top-down" processes in younger and older preschoolers; 2) Determine the relative power of the neurophysiological signatures reflecting both "bottom-up" and "top-down" processes in predicting specific and general ADHD symptom dimensions in 3.5- and 5-year-olds. The project is innovative in its objective to measure brain activity related to EC and ADHD risk in this critical age range, and to do so within the framework of sophisticated statistical models which form the basis of the hypotheses. The significance of this research is that it will explicate the mechanisms underlying the qualitative shift in preschool EC development and identify how individual differences in these mechanisms correspond to risk for child psychopathology. This work will clarify the importance of EC as a critical target for early assessment/intervention and ultimately enhance national mental health.

 描述（由申请人提供）：学龄前标志着发展性精神病理学出现的关键时期，包括与ADHD一致的症状维度。然而，有效检测儿童早期此类心理健康问题的评估工具的可用性有限，部分原因是人们对早期前体和神经基础还没有很好的了解。学龄前儿童的神经认知发展迅速，表现为幼儿的执行控制能力，并存在个体差异 在精神健康障碍和功能障碍中占有突出地位，使其成为早期评估/干预的潜在重要目标。最近的EC发展模型表明，执行任务的性能在较年轻的学龄前儿童主要是由“自下而上”的刺激/反应处理之前，发生了质的转变4岁左右，之后“自上而下”的执行过程开始有助于行为表现。目前尚不清楚这些互补过程的精确神经生理机制在这个关键转变之前和之后是什么，以及它们在有金属健康问题风险的儿童中可能有何不同。长期目标是阐明这些过程背后的神经生理学机制，并了解它们如何与儿童精神病理学风险相关。拟议研究的目的是表征过渡前后典型发育儿童各自机制的不同神经生理学特征，并确定过渡后显示ADHD症状的儿童中这些特征的差异。其基本原理是，这些知识将告知这些机制如何在不同的发育阶段和临床样本中发挥作用，为未来的纵向研究和干预奠定基础。中央 假设是，在过渡之前和之后，“自下而上”刺激/反应处理的不同神经生理学特征将是可识别的，但是与“自下而上”EC相关的神经活动将仅在较晚的年龄被观察到，并且在具有ADHD症状的儿童中进一步减少。本研究的具体目的是：1）描述年轻和年长学龄前儿童的“自下而上”和“自上而下”过程的神经生理学特征; 2）确定反映“自下而上”和“自上而下”过程的神经生理学特征在预测3.5岁和5岁儿童的特定和一般ADHD症状维度中的相对功率。该项目的创新之处在于其目标是测量与EC相关的大脑活动 和多动症的风险在这个关键的年龄范围内，并在复杂的统计模型的框架内，形成的假设的基础。这项研究的意义在于，它将阐明学前EC发展的质的转变的机制，并确定这些机制中的个体差异如何对应于儿童精神病理学的风险。这项工作将澄清EC作为早期评估/干预的关键目标的重要性，并最终提高国民的精神健康。