Translational Studies of Brain Circuitry Disrupted by Alcoholism

描述（由申请人提供）：本K05申请是对NIAAA高级科学家奖计划公告（PA-06-555）的回应，代表了我作为首席研究员的nih资助项目的综合。作为斯坦福大学医学院精神病学和行为科学系的教授，我有两个主要角色：1)作为一名科学家，我对酗酒和衰老对大脑结构和功能的影响进行人类和动物的转化性研究；2)作为一名导师，我在我的神经科学项目的各个方面教授和领导发展中的神经科学家。环境：斯坦福大学的神经科学研究社区是充满活力的，多方面的，吸引了各行各业最聪明的学生。我在自己的院系以及放射学、神经科学项目和SRI国际都有重要的合作。我的研究的基础是获得先进的神经成像设备和专业知识，用于我和我的学生的人类和动物研究。我的实验室的综合资源，神经成像设备，以及大斯坦福社区特殊的正式和非正式神经科学教育项目，为我的学生提供了一个丰富的环境。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K05 application is in response to an NIAAA Program Announcement (PA-06-555) for a Senior Scientist Award and represents a synthesis of NIH-funded projects on which I am principal investigator. As a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, I have two principal roles: 1) as a scientist, I conduct human and animal, translational studies of the effects of alcoholism and aging on brain structure and function; 2) as a mentor, I teach and lead developing neuroscientists in all aspects of my neuroscience program. Environment: Stanford University's neuroscience research community is dynamic, multifaceted, and attracts the brightest students at all levels of career development. I have major collaborations in my own department as well as in Radiology, the Neuroscience Program, and SRI International. Fundamental to my research is access to advanced neuroimaging facilities and expertise for my own and my mentees1 human and animal studies. The combined resources of my laboratory, the neuroimaging facilities, and the exceptional formal and informal neuroscience educational programs of the greater Stanford community provide a rich environment for my mentees. Research. My program of research uses quantitative behavioral neuroscience approaches that are complemented with structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) with the aim of characterizing affected brain regions in alcoholism itself and in interaction with brain changes associated with senescence. In addition to human investigations, my research entails animal models of excessive alcohol exposure. The ultimate goal of my program of research is to identify those functional and structural neural systems affected by alcoholism that are permanent and those that are spared or restorable. Relevance. The outcome of my studies has notable potential relevance to public health. Common, but often unrecognized, untoward consequences of alcoholism are subtle but functionally significant impairments in cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Our work, for example, has revealed age- and alcoholism-related compromise of postural control mechanisms that could be ameliorated by supplementary sensorimotor input, but if left unattended to could lead to falling. Identification of the brain systems supporting cognitive, sensory, and motor functions that remain relatively intact and those that are damaged in alcoholism with exacerbation from aging is a crucial step in designing rehabilitation efforts for recruiting intact brain systems to compensate for damaged ones.