Cortical Maturation and ERPs in Cocaine-Exposed Children

描述（由申请人提供）： 这项高级科学家奖的申请建立在十多年的研究工作的影响，父母可卡因滥用在怀孕期间对儿童的发展中的情绪调节和执行控制功能的纵向队列暴露和非暴露的儿童出生后。在这个高级研究奖期间，我有三个目标。首先，我计划在接下来的五年里进一步发展和加强我们研究实验室的最新组成部分，我们的高密度事件相关电位实验室，以及这种方法在研究可卡因暴露儿童大脑皮层成熟中的应用。这第一个目标旨在扩大有前途的初步调查结果，在产前可卡因暴露学龄儿童参与事件相关电位（ERP）的研究。在初步的ERP研究中，我的科学计划和最近资助的NIDA应用程序（RO 1 DA 17863 -01）的基础上，ERP研究结果表明，早期接触可卡因可能会抑制认知处理过程中大脑区域参与的专业化和精简，因此任务处理开始较慢，需要更多的皮层参与，并需要更多的时间来完成。在此基础上，我们采用事件相关电位（ERP）方法，对369名11、12、13岁的儿童进行了三个刺激反应实验（Stroop、熟悉-新奇词范式和P300传统“古怪球”范式）的追踪研究（RO 1DA-06025）。利用ERP方法在儿童中的研究已经证明了其在研究额叶成熟方面的潜力，因此它可以为澄清产前可卡因暴露对皮质功能和认知功能发育过程的一般和具体影响提供额外的必要信息。这些信息可能会导致更好地定义和治疗这些发展问题。作为这个高级科学家奖的第二个目标，我将在接下来的五年里致力于发展我在事件相关电位作为神经成像技术方面的专业知识，并设计适当的范例，用于研究高风险环境和生物风险条件下儿童前额叶皮层成熟的各个方面。第三，在我实验室发展的下一阶段，我将利用我们高密度ERP和神经生理学实验室的资源，进一步增加行为神经科学博士前和博士后研究员培训的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for a senior scientist award builds on over decade of work on studies of the impact of parental cocaine abuse during pregnancy on children's developing emotional regulatory and executive control functions in a longitudinal cohort of exposed and non-exposed children followed since birth. I have three goals for the period of this senior research award. First, I plan to devote these next five years to further developing and enhancing the newest component of our research laboratory, our high density event related potential lab and the application of this method to studying cortical maturation in cocaine-exposed children. This first goal seeks to extend promising preliminary findings regarding cortical functioning in prenatally cocaine exposed school-aged children participating in event related potential (ERP) studies. In the preliminary ERP studies that are the basis of my scientific plan and of a recently funded NIDA application (RO1 DA17863-01), ERP findings indicate that early exposure to cocaine may inhibit the specialization and streamlining of brain region involvement during cognitive processing such that task processing is slower to begin, requires more diverse cortical involvement, and requires more time to complete. Based on these findings, we propose to use ERP methods to assess with repeated visits at 11,12, & 13 years the 369 children participating in an ongoing longitudinal study (RO1 DA-06025) using three stimulus response experiments, the Stroop, a familiar-novel words paradigm, and a P300 traditional "odd-ball" paradigm. Research utilizing ERP methodology in children has demonstrated its potential in studying frontal maturation, and thus it may provide additional information necessary for clarifying the general and specific effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on cortical functioning and the developmental course of cognitive functions. Such information may then lead to better definition and treatment of these developmental problems. As the second goal of this senior scientist award, I will devote these next five years to developing my expertise in event related potentials as a neuroimaging technique and to designing appropriate paradigms for studying aspects of prefrontal cortical maturation in children from high-risk environments and biological risk conditions. Third, during this next phase of my laboratory development, I will further enhance the opportunities for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellows training in behavioral neuroscionce using resources of our high density ERP and neurophysiology laboratories.