FMRI Assessment of Attention and Memory in PTSD

描述(由申请人提供)：该奖项的PI是Rajendra A.Morey，杜克大学精神病学系的临床助理，并在杜克大学脑成像和分析中心担任初级教员。格雷戈里·麦卡锡博士和乔纳森·戴维森博士将担任导师。应聘者的短期职业目标是扩大他在以下方面的理解：(A)创伤后应激障碍的神经生物学和功能神经解剖学；(B)功能神经影像研究方法；(C)创伤后应激障碍研究中心理测量学工具的使用；(D)生物统计学；(D)负责任地进行以病人为中心的研究。他的长期目标是开发一项高质量的研究计划，利用脑功能成像来阐明认知和情感过程在创伤后应激障碍的发病和治疗中的作用。应聘者将通过整合教学、研究生课程、定向阅读、教程、撰写评论文章以及临床研究计划管理、资助精神和研究伦理方面的培训来促进其教育目标的实现。创伤后应激障碍有三个基本特征：(I)通过频繁的记忆和侵入性思维重温创伤经历，(Ii)避免提醒创伤事件，(Iii)长期处于高度觉醒状态；这些可能在严重心理创伤后发展，影响大约8%的美国人口。注意力和记忆力受损是与创伤后应激障碍相关的最一致的神经认知发现，但这些缺陷的神经基础尚不清楚，值得进一步研究。这项建议的目的是调查与创伤后应激障碍相关的情绪失调对注意力和记忆的神经关联的影响。本研究的三个主要目的是使用功能磁共振成像来描述PTSD患者的情绪与(I)自愿注意、(Ii)非自愿注意和(Iii)记忆的相互作用。先前测试的认知挑战将在功能磁共振成像环境中用于量化创伤后应激障碍患者、创伤对照组和健康对照组之间的任务相关激活。FMRI测量与神经心理学和临床测量之间的相关性将被调查。从这项研究中获得的证据有望促进创伤后应激障碍的领域，以及我们对导致注意力和记忆缺陷的功能神经回路的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The PI for this award is Rajendra A. Morey, a Clinical Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University with a primary faculty appointment at the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Drs. Gregory McCarthy and Jonathan Davidson will serve as mentors. The candidate's short-term career goals are to broaden his understanding in (a) neurobiology and functional neuroanatomy underlying PTSD (b) functional neuroimaging research methodology (c) use of psychometric tools in PTSD research (d) biostatistics (d) responsible conduct of patient oriented research. His long-term goals are to develop a high quality research program that utilizes functional brain imaging to clarify the role of cognitive and emotion processes in the onset and treatment of PTSD. The candidate will facilitate his educational objectives by integrating didactics, graduate courses, directed readings, tutorials, authoring of review articles and augmented by training in clinical research program management, grantsmanship, and research ethics. PTSD is characterized by three cardinal features: (i) reliving the traumatic experience through frequent memories and intrusive thoughts, (ii) avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event, (iii) a chronic state of hyperarousal; these may develop in the aftermath of severe psychological trauma and affect approximately 8% of the US population. Impaired attention and memory are the most consistently reported neurocognitive findings associated with PTSD, yet the neural basis of these deficits is not well understood and warrants further investigation. The goal of this proposal is to investigate the impact of emotional dysregulation associated with PTSD on the neural correlates of attention and memory. The three principle aims of this study are to use functional MRI to describe the interaction of emotion with (i) voluntary attention, fii) involuntary attention, and (iii) memory in patients with PTSD. Previously tested cognitive challenges will be used in the fMRI environment to quantify task related activation between PTSD patients, trauma controls, and healthy controls. Correlations between fMRI measures and neuropsychological and clinical measures will be investigated. The evidence gained from this study is expected to further the field of PTSD and our understanding of the functional neural circuits that contribute to attention and memory deficits.