Emotion processing: Risk for psychopathology

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请是旨在了解虐待对儿童大脑行为发育影响的项目的第一次竞争性更新。对非人类动物的研究表明，不利的父母照顾会影响神经系统的发育，而神经系统是心理健康问题风险的基础。我们在项目初期的工作成功地强调了感知和注意过程的重要性，这些过程是受虐待儿童情绪困难的基础机制。下一阶段的研究将阐明这些联系的生物学基础，检查风险和保护因素，并确定使儿童处于特定形式精神疾病风险中的因素。拟议的工作旨在激励在随后的项目期间开发临床干预试验。本申请提出利用行为，认知神经生理，解剖学，遗传和神经内分泌措施，以澄清儿童早期压力与青春期出现心理健康问题的发展机制。我们将：（1）确定早期压力体验和情绪处理措施之间的联系在儿童发展过程中的稳定性;（2）确定情绪处理的特定方面如何与不同形式的精神疾病相关联;（3）详细说明儿童早期情绪体验，童年情绪调节和精神疾病出现之间的联系的生物学机制。测量将采用生物学方法，包括认知心理生理学、脑成像、遗传和神经内分泌方法。总之，本申请提出了一个持续的研究计划，将研究与虐待儿童相关的改变的情绪调节过程，并将这些措施与心理健康结果联系起来。该项目有可能综合推进儿童和成人心理健康问题预防和治疗所需的关键领域。这些包括理解大脑对情绪的调节和对慢性社会压力的反应的神经生物学，人类大脑对上下文或环境影响的敏感性，以及环境对人类行为产生长期影响的方式。这些焦点中的每一个都为知识的进步和应用提供了巨大的希望，以改善公共卫生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is the first competitive renewal of a project designed to understand the effects of abuse on children's brain-behavioral development. Studies of non-human animals have shown that adverse parental care shapes the development of the neural systems that underlie risk for mental health problems. Our work during the initial project period successfully highlighted the importance of perceptual and attentional processes as mechanisms underlying the emotional difficulties of maltreated children. This next phase of research will clarify the biological basis of these links, examine risk and protective factors, and identify the factors that place children at risk for particular forms of mental illness. The proposed work is designed to motivate development of clinical intervention trials during a subsequent project period. This application proposes to harness behavioral, cognitive neuro-physiological, anatomical, genetic, and neuro-endocrine measures to clarify the developmental mechanisms linking early stress in childhood with the emergence of mental health problems in adolescence. We will: (1) Determine the stability of the link between early stress experience and emotion processing measures across children's development; (2) Identify how specific aspects of emotion processing are associated with different forms of mental illness; (3) Specify the biological mechanisms which serve as links between children's early emotional experiences, regulation of emotion in childhood, and emergence of mental illness. Measurements will employ biological approaches including cognitive psycho-physiological, brain imaging, genetic and neuro-endocrine methods. In sum, this application proposes a continuing program of research that will examine altered emotional regulatory processes associated with child abuse and that will link these measures to mental health outcomes. This project has potential to synthesize key areas necessary to advance prevention and treatment of mental health problems in children and adults. Those include understanding the neurobiology of the brain's regulation of emotion and response to chronic social stress, the sensitivity of the human brain to contextual or environmental influences, and the ways in which the environment creates long-term effects on human behavior. Each of these foci holds tremendous promise for advancement of knowledge and application to improvement of public health.