Neurodevelopmental Emergence of Callous-Unemotional Behavior Beginning in Infancy: Neural Markers and Environmental Risk and Protective Factors

项目总结 冷酷无情的行为(CU行为)，以非典型的低移情、亲社交和负罪感为特征， 代表道德发展的严重损害，与严重和持续的行为问题有关， 暴力犯罪、社交排斥和药物使用障碍。令人担忧的是，CU的行为在历史上是 很难治疗。到3岁时，CU行为是可以可靠测量的，可以预测CU持续到童年后期，并且已经 伴随着更大的行为和社会问题。尽管有这些证据，但很少有研究检验 CU行为的先兆(即新出现的CU)或在婴儿期和 蹒跚学步，道德发展迅速，因此可塑性最强的时期。这一知识可能会识别更多 可能针对新兴CU的精确风险和保护流程，以防止严重损害 心理社会轨迹。与NIMH战略目标2保持一致，即“绘制精神疾病轨迹图以 确定何时、何地以及如何进行干预，这款K23应用程序旨在识别神经关联和 新出现的CU行为的环境、儿童性格和父母教养风险和保护因素 婴儿期和蹒跚学步。为了实现这些目标，这项提议利用了一个特殊的机会来增加 美国国立卫生研究院资助的一项研究的措施，该研究跟踪了每年出生的大量高危母婴队列 到3岁。申请者将在这项家长研究中增加关键措施，包括观察性和家长- 报告对新兴CU、事件相关电位(ERP)任务和实验者-儿童互动的评估 来评估儿童的性情。这项建议将使用事件相关电位来表征CU行为的神经标志物 并检查儿童环境(早期生活逆境)和性格(低从属关系)的各个方面 婴儿期的测量可以预测从3岁到3岁的CU的不良适应轨迹。此外，它还将测试 低的育儿热情与这些风险轨迹有关，因此可能是针对 治疗。这些发现将为新出现的CU行为的发育神经生物学提供信息，并阐明有希望的 早期预防和治疗目标。为了执行此建议书，此应用程序中的培训计划旨在 申请者需要接受1)事件相关电位评估方法的培训；2)哥伦比亚大学发展精神病理学的培训 行为；3)纵向设计与分析。丰富的培训环境和多学科的团队 每一个领域的导师都有详细介绍。所述的研究和培训活动将使 成为一名独立科学家的候选人，研究道德异常的神经和心理社会风险 儿童早期精神病理学的发展及其在发病和维持中的作用。

PROJECT SUMMARY Callous-unemotional behavior (CU behavior), characterized by atypically low empathy, prosociality and guilt, represents a serious impairment in moral development associated with severe and persistent conduct problems, violent crime, social rejection, and substance use disorders. Alarmingly, CU behaviors have been historically difficult to treat. By age 3, CU behaviors are reliably measurable, predict CU into late childhood, and are already associated with greater conduct and social problems. Despite this evidence, very few studies have examined precursors of CU behaviors (i.e., emerging CU) or identified risk and protective factors during infancy and toddlerhood, when morality develops rapidly and thus may be most malleable. This knowledge may identify more precise risk and protective processes underlying emerging CU that may be targeted to prevent a highly impairing psychosocial trajectory. Consistent with NIMH Strategic Objective 2 to “chart mental illness trajectories to determine when, where, and how to intervene,” this K23 application aims to identify neural correlates and environmental, child dispositional, and parenting risk and protective factors for emerging CU behavior across infancy and toddlerhood. To accomplish these aims, this proposal leverages an exceptional opportunity to add measures to an NIH-funded study following a large, high-risk cohort of mother-infant dyads annually from birth through age 3. The applicant will add critical measures to this parent study including observational and parent- report assessments of emerging CU, an event-related potential (ERP) task, and experimenter-child interactions to assess children's dispositions. This proposal will use ERPs to characterize neural markers of CU behavior and examine whether aspects of children's environments (early life adversity) and dispositions (low affiliation) measured in infancy predict maladaptive trajectories of emerging CU through age 3. Further, it will test whether low parenting warmth is implicated in these risk trajectories and could thus be a protective factor targeted in treatment. Findings will inform the developmental neurobiology of emerging CU behavior and elucidate promising early prevention and treatment targets. To execute this proposal, the training plan in this application addresses the applicant's need for training in 1) ERP assessment methods; 2) the developmental psychopathology of CU behavior; and 3) longitudinal design and analysis. A rich training environment and a multidisciplinary team of mentors in each of these areas is detailed. The described research and training activities will enable the candidate to become an independent scientist investigating neural and psychosocial risk for aberrant moral development and its role in the onset and maintenance of early childhood psychopathology.