Imaging Cognitive Control in Cocaine Dependence

描述（由申请人提供）：此K02申请寻求对候选人在药物滥用研究方面的持续培训和职业发展至关重要的支持。在NIDA和NIH的指导职业奖的支持下，候选人在认知和成像神经科学方面发展了相当多的专业知识。他在结合功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和实验心理学来描述认知控制的组成神经过程方面已经发表了记录，认知控制是导致可卡因依赖患者复发的关键因素。他已获得独立资助，研究认知控制的神经过程改变，以及这些缺陷如何预测可卡因依赖患者随访期间的药物使用行为。与耶鲁大学正电子发射断层扫描（PET）中心的同事合作，他还提议检查与这些患者认知控制改变相关的分子基础。因此，候选人提出了系统的培训：(a)高级数据，包括功能磁共振成像的连通性分析；(b) PET成像方法和程序；(c)神经精神药理学;(d)临床治疗结果及复发情况研究；(e)伦理和人类受试者研究培训，以提高他在物质使用障碍方面进行转化和临床研究的知识和技能。他将在获奖期间专注于三个项目，以获得专业知识。在R01项目中，他将阐明可卡因依赖患者复发的神经预测因子。在R03项目中，他将检查药物诱导的可卡因渴求患者的这些神经过程。他也在积极寻求资金来研究去甲肾上腺素能神经传递的调节，作为可卡因渴求期间“失去控制”的分子基础。因此，这个K02奖对于候选人获得进行拟议研究所需的额外培训，扩大他的研究范围，并在他发展成为药物滥用研究的主要研究者方面保持生产力至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K02 application seeks support that is essential for the candidate's continued training and career development in substance abuse research. With the support of mentored career awards both from the NIDA and the NIH, the candidate has developed considerable expertise in cognitive and imaging neuroscience. His has shown a record of publication in combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and experimental psychology to delineate the component neural processes of cognitive control, a critical factor contributing to relapse in cocaine dependent patients. He has obtained independent funding to investigate the altered neural processes of cognitive control and how these deficits may predict drug use behavior during follow-up of patients with cocaine dependence. Collaborating with colleagues at the Yale Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center, he is also proposing to examine the molecular bases in association with altered cognitive control in these patients. Thus, the candidate has proposed a systematic training in (a) advanced data including connectivity analysis of fMRI; (b) PET imaging methodology and procedure; (c) neuropsychopharmacology; (d) clinical treatment outcome and relapse study; and (e) ethics and human subject study training to enhance his knowledge and skills in performing translational and clinical research in substance use disorders. He will acquire the expertise by focusing on three projects during the award period. In the R01 project he will elucidate the neural predictors of relapse in cocaine dependent patients. In the R03 project he will examine these neural processes in the patients with pharmacologically induced cocaine craving. He is also actively seeking funding to examine the regulation of noradrenergic neurotransmission as a molecular basis of "loss of control" during cocaine craving. Thus, this K02 award is vital for the candidate to receive additional training required to perform the proposed research, to broaden his research scope, and to remain productive in his development into a leading investigator in substance abuse research.