Neurodevelopmental substrates of emotion regulation in obese, binge eating youth

 描述(申请人提供)：进食时失控(LOC)(即一个人无法控制自己吃什么或吃多少的感觉)在儿童和青少年中很普遍。LoC饮食与一系列身体和心理社会健康损害有关，包括肥胖和部分和完全综合征饮食障碍的发展。因此，及早识别对于预防或最大限度地减少这些不利的健康后果至关重要。然而，人们对儿童进食低脂食物的发展知之甚少，因此，缺乏有效的干预措施。情绪调节障碍似乎与肥胖样本中进食病理的发生和维持有关。到目前为止，对患有低脂饮食问题的年轻人的情绪调节知之甚少，对潜在的神经发育底物的研究几乎不存在。这项拟议的研究旨在与30名超重儿童和15名正常体重的对照组进行比较，以确定与情绪调节有关的神经回路的特征。参与者将在核磁共振扫描仪中完成一项认知重新评估任务，其目的是描述参与重新评估的神经活动与情绪维持控制条件的特征。这项拟议的研究旨在促进该领域对超重儿童进食LOC的性质和相关性的理解，从而为干预发展提供信息。这项研究也符合申请者职业发展目标的更广泛背景。这位候选人是精神病学和行为神经科学的助理教授，他的研究项目专注于儿童进食和体重失调，特别是暴饮暴食及其与负面情绪的关系。为期4年的培训计划的首要目标是确立候选人作为独立调查员的地位。具体的培训活动将侧重于对儿童和青少年情绪调节中涉及的神经回路有足够的了解，以便能够利用发育神经科学框架来探索饮食失调；并获得收集、分析和解释功能磁共振数据的经验。指导团队由国际知名的发展精神病理学、情感神经科学、儿科进食和体重失调专家组成，他们将对培训计划进行概念性监督，并培养申请者的职业轨迹。开展研究和培训活动 在芝加哥大学精神病学系、行为神经科学和脑成像研究中心。这一职业发展奖将填补候选人培训方面的空白，以拓宽她在儿童肥胖症和饮食失调方面的专业知识，最终指导研究计划为这些问题开发新的干预措施，并促进她向独立临床研究员的转变。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Loss of control (LOC) while eating (i.e., the sense that one cannot control what or how much one is eating) is prevalent among children and adolescents. LOC eating is associated with a range of physical and psychosocial health impairments, including obesity and the development of partial- and full-syndrome eating disorders. Early identification is thus critical for preventing or minimizing these adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about the development of LOC eating in children and, consequently, there is a paucity of effective interventions. Impairments in emotion regulation appear to be involved in the onset and maintenance of eating pathology in obese samples. To date, emotion regulation in youth with LOC eating problems is poorly understood, and research on underlying neurodevelopmental substrates is virtually nonexistent. The proposed research aims to characterize neurocircuitry involved in emotion regulation among 30 overweight children with LOC eating as compared to 30 overweight and 15 normal-weight controls without LOC. Participants will complete a cognitive reappraisal task whilst situated in an MRI scanner, the purpose of which is to characterize neural activity involved in reappraisal versus an emotion maintenance control condition. The proposed research aims to advance the field's understanding of the nature and correlates of LOC eating in overweight children so as to inform intervention development. The research also fits within the broader context of the applicant's career development goals. The candidate is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience whose research program has focused on pediatric eating and weight disorders, particularly binge eating and its relationship with negative affect. The overarching goal of the 4-year training program is to establish the candidate as an independent investigator. Specific training activities will focus on gaining a sufficient understanding of neurocircuitry involved in emotion regulation across childhood and adolescence to be able to utilize a developmental neuroscience framework for the probing of dysregulated eating; and obtaining experience collecting, analyzing, and interpreting fMRI data. The mentorship team consists of internationally-known experts in developmental psychopathology, affective neuroscience, and pediatric eating and weight disorders who will provide conceptual oversight of the training plan and nurture the applicant's career trajectory. Research and training activities will be carried out at the University of Chicago's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience and Brain Imaging Research Center. This Career Development Award will fill gaps in the candidate's training in order to broaden her expertise in pediatric obesity and eating disorders, ultimately guiding the research program towards the development of novel interventions for these problems, and facilitating her transition into an independent clinical investigator.