Early Brain Development in Twins

 描述(由申请人提供)：双胞胎研究提供了关于基因和环境如何导致健康和精神疾病中大脑结构和认知功能的个体差异以及这些影响在发育过程中如何变化的基本信息。之前对年龄较大的儿童、青少年和成年人的双胞胎研究表明，遗传和环境的影响是特定于地区/结构的，并随年龄而变化。幼儿期是大脑结构和功能快速发育的时期，与许多精神疾病的发病机制有关。因此，在这个发育的关键时期，迫切需要了解遗传和环境因素对大脑结构和功能的作用。双胞胎的早期大脑发育研究是第一项，也是我们所知的唯一一项关于儿童早期大脑发育的双胞胎研究。到目前为止，我们已经招募和研究了超过275对双胞胎，在出生时、1岁、2岁、4岁和6岁，并提供了关于遗传和环境对儿童早期大脑发育影响的新颖和以前未知的信息。在下一个资助周期中，我们建议通过跟踪目前的队列至6岁来完成我们对儿童早期大脑发育的双胞胎研究。磁共振成像，包括结构、扩散张量和静息状态功能成像，将在4岁、6岁时进行。将评估认知发展，包括语言和工作记忆的RDoC结构。这一筹资周期的其他创新包括应用最近开发的方法来描绘幼儿的皮质厚度和表面积，以及增加静息状态的功能磁共振成像。从这项研究中获得的知识将提高我们对人脑发育的基本理解，使我们能够确定与精神疾病风险相关的可改变的异常发育轨迹，并帮助我们确定在发育早期干预何时会产生最大影响。相关性这项研究中获得的新知识将为理解遗传和环境对儿童早期大脑发育的影响提供一个显著改进的框架，儿童早期大脑发育是许多神经精神疾病的风险时期，并将为制定这些疾病的预防策略提供关键的基本信息。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Twin studies have provided fundamental information about how genes and environment contribute to individual differences in brain structure and cognitive function in health and psychiatric disease and how these influences change during development. Previous twin studies in older children, adolescents and adults indicate that genetic and environmental influences are region/structure specific and change with age. Early childhood is period of rapid structural and functional brain development that is implicated in the pathogenesis of many psychiatric disorders. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the role of genetic and environmental contributions to brain structure and function in this crucial period of development. The Early Brain Development in Twins study has been the first, and to our knowledge the only, twin study of early childhood brain development. To date we have enrolled and studied over 275 twin pairs, at birth, 1, 2, 4, and 6 years and provided novel and previously unknown information about genetic and environmental influences on brain development in early childhood. In the next funding cycle, we propose to complete our twin study of early childhood brain development by following the current cohort to age 6. MRIs, including structural, diffusion tensor, and resting state functional imaging, will be done at ages , 4, and 6 years. Cognitive development, including RDoC constructs of language and working memory will be assessed. Additional innovations for this funding cycle include the application of a recently developed methodology for delineating cortical thickness and surface area in very young children, and the addition of resting state fMRI. Knowledge gained in this study will improve our basic understanding of human brain development, allow us to determine how modifiable abnormal developmental trajectories associated with risk for psychiatric disease may be, and help us determine when in development early interventions would have the greatest impact. Relevance New knowledge gained in this study will provide a dramatically improved framework for understanding genetic and environmental influences on early childhood brain development, a period of risk for many neuropsychiatric disorders and will provide the fundamental information critical for developing preventative strategies for these disorders.