Early Brain Development in Twins

双胞胎的早期大脑发育

• 批准号: 9329592
• 负责人: JOHN Horace GILMORE
• 金额: $ 2.12万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9329592
• 关键词: 12 year old; 4 year old; 6 year old; 9 year old; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Anisotropy; Area; Autistic Disorder; Base of the Brain; Behavior; Birth; Brain; Child; Childhood; Cognition; Cognitive; Coupling; Development; Developmental Process; Diffusion; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Disease; Early Intervention; Enrollment; Environment; Environmental Risk Factor; Functional Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Genes; Genetic; Genetic Models; Genetic study; Goals; Health; Heritability; Human; Individual Differences; Intervention; Knowledge; Language; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Mental disorders; Methodology; Modeling; National Institute of Mental Health; Neonatal; Neurocognitive; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Outcome; Pathogenesis; Phenotype; Prevention strategy; Property; Reporting; Research; Research Domain Criteria; Rest; Risk; Role; Schizophrenia; Short-Term Memory; Structure; Surface; Testing; Thick; Thinness; Time; Twin Multiple Birth; Twin Studies; Variant; brain abnormalities; cognitive development; cognitive function; cohort; cost; critical period; early childhood; environmental intervention; experience; genetic predictors; gray matter; improved; innovation; neuropsychiatric disorder; novel; prenatal; public health relevance; rapid growth; white matter

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Twin studies have provided fundamental information about how genes and environment contribute to individual differences in brain structure and cognitive function in health and psychiatric disease and how these influences change during development. Previous twin studies in older children, adolescents and adults indicate that genetic and environmental influences are region/structure specific and change with age. Early childhood is period of rapid structural and functional brain development that is implicated in the pathogenesis of many psychiatric disorders. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the role of genetic and environmental contributions to brain structure and function in this crucial period of development. The Early Brain Development in Twins study has been the first, and to our knowledge the only, twin study of early childhood brain development. To date we have enrolled and studied over 275 twin pairs, at birth, 1, 2, 4, and 6 years and provided novel and previously unknown information about genetic and environmental influences on brain development in early childhood. In the next funding cycle, we propose to complete our twin study of early childhood brain development by following the current cohort to age 6. MRIs, including structural, diffusion tensor, and resting state functional imaging, will be done at ages , 4, and 6 years. Cognitive development, including RDoC constructs of language and working memory will be assessed. Additional innovations for this funding cycle include the application of a recently developed methodology for delineating cortical thickness and surface area in very young children, and the addition of resting state fMRI. Knowledge gained in this study will improve our basic understanding of human brain development, allow us to determine how modifiable abnormal developmental trajectories associated with risk for psychiatric disease may be, and help us determine when in development early interventions would have the greatest impact. Relevance New knowledge gained in this study will provide a dramatically improved framework for understanding genetic and environmental influences on early childhood brain development, a period of risk for many neuropsychiatric disorders and will provide the fundamental information critical for developing preventative strategies for these disorders.

 描述（由申请人提供）：双胞胎研究提供了关于基因和环境如何影响健康和精神疾病中大脑结构和认知功能的个体差异以及这些影响如何在发育过程中变化的基本信息。先前在年龄较大的儿童、青少年和成人中进行的双胞胎研究表明，遗传和环境影响具有区域/结构特异性，并随年龄而变化。儿童早期是大脑结构和功能快速发育的时期，与许多精神疾病的发病机制有关。因此，有一个关键需要了解的作用，遗传和环境的贡献，大脑的结构和功能，在这一关键时期的发展。 双胞胎的早期大脑发育研究是第一个，也是我们所知的唯一一个关于儿童早期大脑发育的双胞胎研究。到目前为止，我们已经招募和研究了超过275对双胞胎，在出生时，1，2，4和6年，并提供了新的和以前未知的信息，遗传和环境对儿童早期大脑发育的影响。在下一个资助周期中，我们建议通过跟踪当前队列到6岁来完成我们对儿童早期大脑发育的双胞胎研究。MRI，包括结构、弥散张量和静息状态功能成像，将在4岁和6岁时进行。将评估认知发展，包括语言和工作记忆的RDoC结构。该资助周期的其他创新包括应用最近开发的方法来描绘非常年幼儿童的皮质厚度和表面积，以及增加静息状态功能磁共振成像。这项研究中获得的知识将提高我们对人类大脑发育的基本理解，使我们能够确定与精神疾病风险相关的可改变的异常发育轨迹，并帮助我们确定发育早期干预何时会产生最大的影响。本研究获得的新知识将为理解遗传和环境对儿童早期大脑发育的影响提供一个大大改进的框架，这是许多神经精神疾病的风险期，并将为制定这些疾病的预防策略提供重要的基本信息。