Functional and Neurochemical Substrates of Amygdala-Frontal Circuitry across Development and Anxiety (COVID-19 Supplement)

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ABSTRACT R21 MH116475 entitled “Functional and Neurochemical Substrates of Amygdala-Frontal Circuitry across Development and Anxiety” (FANSDA) is to examine the developmental trajectories of amygdala-frontal (particularly the anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]) circuitry in healthy (N = 40) and anxious (with generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], N = 40) participants between 16 to 26 years old. The overarching objective of this study is to uncover an integrated functional-neurochemical biomarker for healthy versus anxious development. The award was originally received by the PI at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) on August 12, 2020. As the PI moved from UIC to University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), the award was transferred from UIC to Pitt on April 8, 2021. After the project was set up at Pitt, following the university and department guidelines for COVID, we had to halt recruitment from time to time as the scanner site had to be shut down because of the infection of the staff. As of April 2022, we have recruited 18 participants, 17 participants have been interviewed for behavioral and neuropsychological measures and 8 participants have completed the final MRI scans. We are confident that we will eventually recruit 80 subjects (40 subjects in each group). We request the fund that is specifically aimed to recover salaries paid due to the COVID pandemic shutdown. This proposal is responsive to NOT-MH-21-120 as 1) it is within the scope of the funded research; 2) FANSDA is in the last year of the award; 3) completion of enrollment is critical for the success of the current project.