Emotion processing: Risk for psychopathology

描述(由申请者提供)：该申请是一个旨在了解虐待对儿童大脑行为发育的影响的项目的首次竞争性续签。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，而神经系统是导致精神健康问题的潜在风险。我们在最初项目期间的工作成功地突出了感知和注意过程作为导致虐待儿童情绪困难的机制的重要性。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，并确定将儿童置于特定形式精神疾病风险中的因素。拟议的工作旨在推动在随后的项目期内开发临床干预试验。这项应用建议利用行为、认知神经生理、解剖学、遗传学和神经内分泌措施来阐明儿童早期应激与青春期心理健康问题的出现之间的发展机制。我们将：(1)确定儿童早期应激体验和情绪处理措施之间联系的稳定性；(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；(3)明确作为儿童早期情绪体验、童年情绪调节和精神疾病出现之间联系的生物学机制。测量将使用生物学方法，包括认知心理生理、脑成像、遗传和神经内分泌方法。总之，这项申请提出了一个持续的研究计划，将检查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的预防和治疗所需的关键领域。这些包括了解大脑对情绪和对慢性社会压力的反应的神经生物学，人类大脑对环境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极有希望促进知识的进步和应用，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.