ANTERIOR CINGULATE ACTIVATION IN GERIATRIC DEPRESSION

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案是K23以患者为导向的指导科学家奖。申请人是一名临床神经心理学家，在结构和功能MRI与衰老的相关性方面接受过研究培训并发表过论文。该提案的目标是支持申请人成长为一名独立研究者，其研究重点是使用认知和情感神经科学方法研究老年抑郁症的神经生物学。神经心理学、电生理学和结构MRI研究结果表明，前扣带回（ACC）功能障碍有助于老年抑郁症的发病机制，其中一些异常甚至影响抑郁症对治疗的反应。功能磁共振成像提供了一个更直接的方法来调查ACC功能障碍，可能是认知和情感障碍的晚年抑郁症的基础。 本申请中提出的培训和研究旨在使申请人成为晚期情绪障碍神经生物学的有效独立研究者。课程、研讨会、辅导、合作研究和论文写作都是为了让申请人在抑郁症的认知和情感神经科学方面有实质性的知识，在功能磁共振成像任务开发和数据分析方面的技能，以及在临床试验方法方面的培训。培训环境（威尔康奈尔老年精神病学研究所）是一个中心，其研究结果和研究议程侧重于ACC在老年抑郁症中的作用，因此将成为申请人成长的沃土。来自康奈尔大学、NIMH、哈佛大学、宾夕法尼亚大学和NKI的导师和专家在与申请人的培训需求相关的领域具有互补的专业知识。培训体验的设计方式是，申请人有机会从与导师的互动中最大限度地受益。此外，申请人将从事一项研究项目，该项目可以作为实现其教育目标的培训基地。该项目将使用神经行为探针来激发老年抑郁症患者和年龄匹配的对照受试者的ACC激活。该项目假设：1）在两组中，认知干扰条件和负配价词条件将引起ACC的差异激活; 2）响应认知和情绪探针，背侧和膝周ACC的激活将区分老年抑郁症患者和对照受试者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is for a K23 Patient-Oriented Mentored Scientist Award. The applicant is a clinical neuropsychologist with research training and publications on structural and functional MRI correlates of aging. The goal of the proposal is to support the applicant's growth into an independent investigator, whose research focuses on the neurobiology of geriatric depression, using cognitive and affective neuroscience approaches. Neuropsychological, electrophysiology, and structural MRI findings suggest that anterior cingulate (ACC) dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of late-life depression and some of these abnormalities even influence the response of depression to treatment. fMRI offers a more direct approach to investigate ACC dysfunction that may underlie cognitive and affective disturbance in late-life depression. The training and research proposed in this application aims to prepare the applicant to become an effective independent investigator in the neurobiology of late-late mood disorders. Coursework, seminars, tutorials, collaborative studies, and paper writing all were planned with the goal of giving the applicant substantive knowledge in the cognitive and affective neuroscience of depression, skills in fMRI task development and data analysis, and training in clinical trials methodology. The training environment (Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry) is a Center with findings and a research agenda focused on the role of ACC in geriatric depression and thus would be fertile ground for the applicant's growth. Mentors and experts from Cornell, NIMH, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and NKI were selected with complementary expertise in areas relevant to the applicant's training needs. The training experience was designed in a way that the applicant has the opportunity to benefit maximally from interaction with her mentors. Moreover, the applicant will pursue a research project that can function as the training ground for accomplishing her educational aims. The project will use neurobehavioral probes to elicit activation of the ACC in geriatric depressed patients and age-matched comparison subjects. The project hypothesizes that 1) In both groups, cognitive interference conditions and negatively valenced word conditions will elicit differential activation of the ACC; 2) In response to cognitive and emotional probes, activation in the dorsal and perigenual ACC will distinguish geriatric depressed patients from comparison subjects.