Identifying the Neural Basis and Functional Role of Emotional Empathy in Dementia

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份K23奖的申请，申请人是加州大学弗朗西斯科记忆和衰老中心（MAC）的神经心理学研究员Virginia Sturm博士。Sturm博士将自己定位为一名年轻的研究者，她对神经退行性疾病中的情绪进行以患者为导向的临床研究。该K23将为Sturm博士提供必要的支持，以实现以下目标：（1）获得神经退行性疾病，鉴别诊断和行为神经学方面的专业知识;（2）通过学习新方法，面部肌电图来提高她的心理生理学知识;（3）精通结构和功能神经成像分析;（4）获得现实世界行为的临床测量经验;（5）学习先进的统计技术;（6）发展独立的研究生涯。为了实现这些目标，斯特姆博士组建了一个指导团队，其中包括两名主要导师：霍华德罗森博士（一位在神经退行性疾病、心理生理学和结构神经影像学方面具有专长的神经学家）和威廉塞利（一名神经学家，在神经病理学、功能性神经成像和“静息状态”网络连接分析方面具有专长）;两名共同导师：布鲁斯米勒博士（一位在行为神经学、神经退行性疾病和临床研究方面具有专长的神经学家）和罗伯特·利文森（Robert Levenson）（一位在心理生理学、情感和同理心方面具有专长的心理学家）;以及三位顾问：James Gross博士（一位在心理生理学、面部肌电图和情感方面具有专长的心理学家），（生物统计学家，具有高级多元统计分析的专业知识），[和加里格洛弗（MRI物理学家，在功能性磁共振成像方法学方面具有技术专长）]。 拟议的研究项目侧重于情感同理心，这是一种通过生理和行为镜像机制对他人产生的自动情感反应。斯特姆博士将使用基于实验室的情感测量来测量两种形式的情感同理心（即，面部拟态和自主神经反应）在行为变异型额颞叶痴呆（bvFTD）患者、阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者和健康对照受试者中的作用（目的1）。Sturm博士将整合情绪共情的实验室测量与神经影像学和临床数据，以确定与bvFTD中情绪共情受损和AD中情绪共情保留相关的神经系统（目标2），并确定情绪共情缺陷对现实世界行为的影响（目标3）。数据收集将在MAC和加州大学伯克利分校进行。[By这些研究详细描述了特定的、移情相关的、bvFTD脆弱的神经网络，将为bvFTD的疾病模型提供信息，并提出用于测量疾病进展和治疗反应的成像生物标志物。Sturm的K23培训将使她准备进行神经退行性疾病中情绪的跨学科研究，并进行未来的研究，详细说明各种临床疾病中情绪功能障碍的神经解剖学基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for a K23 award for Dr. Virginia Sturm, a neuropsychology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (MAC). Dr. Sturm is establishing herself as a young investigator who conducts patient-oriented clinical research on emotion in neurodegenerative disease. This K23 will provide Dr. Sturm with the support necessary to accomplish the following goals: (1) to gain expertise in neurodegenerative disease, differential diagnosis, and behavioral neurology; (2) to advance her knowledge of psychophysiology by learning a new method, facial electromyography; (3) to become proficient in structural and functional neuroimaging analyses; (4) to obtain experience with clinical measures of real-world behavior; (5) to learn advanced statistical techniques; and (6) to develop an independent research career. To achieve these goals, Dr. Sturm has assembled a mentoring team that includes two primary mentors: Drs. Howard Rosen (a neurologist with expertise in neurodegenerative disease, psychophysiology, and structural neuroimaging) and William Seeley (a neurologist with expertise in neuropathology, functional neuroimaging, and "resting state" network connectivity analyses); two co-mentors: Drs. Bruce Miller (a neurologist with expertise in behavioral neurology, neurodegenerative disease, and clinical research) and Robert Levenson (a psychologist with expertise in psychophysiology, emotion, and empathy); and three consultants: Drs. James Gross (a psychologist with expertise in psychophysiology, facial electromyography, and emotion), John Neuhaus (a biostatistician with expertise in advanced multivariate statistical analyses), [and Gary Glover (an MRI physicist with technical expertise in functional magnetic resonance imaging methodologies)]. The proposed research project focuses on emotional empathy, an automatic affective reaction to others that occurs via physiological and behavioral mirroring mechanisms. Dr. Sturm will use laboratory-based measures of emotion to measure two forms of emotional empathy (i.e., facial mimicry and autonomic reactivity) in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and healthy control subjects (Aim 1). Dr. Sturm will integrate laboratory measures of emotional empathy with neuroimaging and clinical data in order to identify the neural systems that are related to emotional empathy impairment in bvFTD and preservation in AD (Aim 2) and to determine the real-world behavioral impact of emotional empathy deficits (Aim 3). Data collection will take place at the MAC and at the University of California, Berkeley. [By detailing specific, empathy-relevant, bvFTD-vulnerable neural network, these studies will inform disease models of bvFTD and suggest imaging biomarkers for measuring disease progression and treatment response. Dr. Sturm's K23 training will prepare her to conduct interdisciplinary studies of emotion in neurodegenerative disease and to conduct future studies that detail the neuroanatomical bases of emotional dysfunction in various clinical disorders.]