Affective Deficits in Schizophrenia

描述(由申请人提供)：这项以患者为导向的研究职业发展建议的目的是请求支持，以开发一种综合的情感和认知神经科学方法来调查精神分裂症的情感缺陷。这项研究的主要目的是从功能上评估在连接情绪和认知信息的基本过程中至关重要的神经回路。对情感信息进行准确的编码和检索，并将这种体验与记忆中的事件和线索联系起来，这一点特别重要，因为它们有助于激励状态，并提供用于适应性决策的信息。目前的研究计划侧重于开发行为和功能成像范例，以评估编码和识别情感信息的基本记忆过程。拟议的职业发展和研究计划旨在为候选人做好准备：a)设计理论驱动的任务，以探索记忆中情感信息的利用；b)使用这些任务来调查精神分裂症患者涉及情绪和记忆功能的神经回路功能障碍。为了实现这些目标，应聘者将从事以下职业发展活动：a)与情感和认知神经科学专家进行高级培训和咨询，为新的认知-情感刺激和任务评估提供信息；b)在磁共振物理学和高级统计方法方面进行教育和培训，以支持有效使用功能磁共振数据采集技术和图像分析；以及c)咨询临床情感和认知神经学家，以使患者群体能够对行为和神经成像数据进行复杂的分析和解释。约翰·斯威尼博士指导了这个项目，顾问们大量参与了情感神经科学、临床神经科学、MR物理学和高级统计分析。这一培训将使候选人能够有效地整合情感和认知神经科学范式中使用的策略，以调查精神分裂症情感认知过程中的缺陷，并发展作为独立研究者继续这一重要研究方向所需的技能和专业知识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development proposal is to request support to develop an integrated affective and cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate affective deficits in schizophrenia. The primary aim of the research is to functionally assess neural circuitry that is critically involved in basic processes linking emotional and cognitive information. Accurate encoding and retrieval of affective information and linkage of this experience to events and cues in memory are particularly important because they contribute to motivational states and provide information utilized for adaptive decision-making. The current research plan focuses on developing behavioral and functional imaging paradigms to assess basic memory processes that encode and recognize affective information. The proposed career development and research plans are designed to prepare the candidate to: a) design theoretically-driven tasks to probe utilization of affective information in memory, and b) use these tasks to investigate dysfuntion in neural circuitry involved in emotional and mnemonic function in individuals with schizophrenia. To achieve these goals, the candidate will pursue career development activities which focus on a) advanced training and consultation with experts in affective and cognitive neuroscience to inform assessment of new cognitive-affective stimuli and tasks, b) education and training in MR physics and advanced statistical methods to support effective use of fMRI data acquisition techniques and image analysis, and c) consultation with expert clinical affective and cognitive neuroscientists to enable sophisticated analysis and interpretation of behavioral and neuroimaging data in patient populations. Dr. John Sweeney mentors this project, with significant participation by consultants in affective neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, MR physics, and advanced statistical analysis. This training will enable the candidate to effectively integrate strategies used in affective and cognitive neuroscience paradigms to investigate deficits in affective-cognitive processes in schizophrenia, and to develop the skills and expertise necessary to continue this important line of research as an independent investigator.