Brain Development Following Institutionalization

描述(由申请人提供)：本修订申请的主要目标是检验在收容机构的时间和持续时间内不同程度的压力对从国外孤儿院收养的儿童杏仁核和海马体结构和功能发育的影响。美国国务院估计，现在每年有数以万计的儿童从国外的孤儿院被收养。随着美国领养儿童数量的不断增加，人们越来越担心这种早期经历对发育的长期影响。这项拟议的研究项目是基于一群在过去十年里被纽约大都市区收养的儿童，他们现在的年龄在6岁到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，重点是基于成像的杏仁核和海马体结构和功能的测量。将不同程度地接受收容(持续时间)的儿童与对照组以及彼此进行比较，因为他们可能是他们自己在人类“剥夺”研究中固有的环境因素方面的最佳对照。我们将招募一个典型的发育中的儿童群体，以评估杏仁核和海马体的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.