Brain Development Following Institutionalization

描述（由申请人提供）：本修订申请的主要目的是研究不同程度的压力在机构化的时间和持续时间对从国外收养的儿童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。随着美国收养儿童数量的不断增加，人们越来越关注这种早期经验对发展的长期影响。拟议的研究计划是基于一组儿童谁被收养到纽约大都市区在过去十年中，谁现在6至11岁。我们正在使用的边缘-下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（LHPA）轴的行为和非侵入性的生物学措施，重点是杏仁核和海马结构和功能的成像为基础的措施。将不同程度地暴露于收容机构（持续时间）的儿童与对照组进行比较，并相互比较，因为他们可能是人类“剥夺”研究中固有的环境因素方面的最佳对照。我们将招募一组发育正常的儿童，以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.