Brain Development Following Institutionalization

描述（由申请人提供）：本次修订申请的主要目的是研究在收容时间和持续时间中不同程度的压力对从国外孤儿院收养的儿童的杏仁核和海马结构和功能发育的影响。美国国务院估计，现在每年有数万名儿童从国外的孤儿院被收养。随着美国被收养儿童的数量不断增加，人们越来越关注这种早期经历对发展的长期影响。这项拟议的研究项目是基于过去十年来被纽约大都市区收养的一组儿童，他们现在的年龄在6到11岁之间。我们正在使用边缘-下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（LHPA）轴的行为和非侵入性生物学测量，重点是基于杏仁核和海马结构和功能的成像测量。将对不同收容经历（持续时间）的儿童与控制组以及彼此进行比较，因为就人类“剥夺”研究中固有的环境因素而言，他们可能是自己的最佳对照。我们将招募一群典型的发育儿童来评估杏仁核和海马体积和功能发育的偏差或延迟。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary objective of this revised application is to examine the effects of varying degrees of stress in the timing and duration of institutionalization on the development of amygdala and hippocampal structure and function in children adopted from orphanages abroad. The Department of State estimates tens of thousands of children are now being adopted from orphanages abroad each year. With this growing number of adopted children in the U.S., has come increasing concern on the long-term consequences of such early experiences on development. The proposed program of research is based on a cohort of children who have been adopted to the New York metropolitan area over the past decade and who are now between 6 and 11 years of age. We are using behavioral and noninvasive biological measures of the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis with emphasis on imaging based measures of amygdala and hippocampal structure and function. Children with varying exposures to institutionalization (duration) will be compared to a control group as well as to each other, as they may be their own best controls with regard to environmental factors inherent in human "deprivation" studies. We will recruit a typically developing population of children to assess deviations or delays in the development of amygdala and hippocampal volume and function.