The development of neural emotion and reward processing circuitry over adolescence and its relations to parenting

我的研究计划的长期目标是彻底描述青春期大脑功能的正常发展，并了解环境经验如何影响这种发展。这项研究将为了解典型的大脑发育和影响这种发育的因素提供基本的见解。情绪和奖赏加工是影响行为和认知的核心神经过程，包括学习、学业成就、人际互动、决策和目标追求。因此，了解支撑这些过程的神经回路的发展是非常重要的。前额叶皮质(PFC)区域对杏仁核对情绪显著刺激的自动反应施加自上而下的抑制性控制。杏仁核-PFC功能连接因此控制神经和情绪对情绪显著刺激的反应。腹侧纹状体(VS)是与奖赏加工联系最密切的纹状体区域，与PFC有双向联系。因此，VS-PFC连接是控制神经对奖励反应的关键回路。然而，人们对这些电路的典型发展情况知之甚少。因此，这项研究的第一个短期目标是了解这些回路功能连接在青春期的标准化发展。第二个短期目标是了解父母的照顾如何影响这一发展。通过不同脑区神经元信号之间的时间相关性，使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来测量功能连通性。参与者将是200名12-17岁的青少年(50%是女性)和至少一名来自社区的父母。在基线、18个月和36个月的随访中，青少年将完成fMRI扫描，包括情绪面孔加工和金钱得失任务，以分别测量情绪和奖励加工的神经关联。参与者和一位家长将完成基于实验室的亲子互动观察，以评估父母的关爱。这项任务包括计划一项愉快的活动，以及讨论和解决父母和青少年发现的问题。两个独立的评分者将编码对青少年表达的爱、参与和支持(即父母关怀)的互动。他们还将完成育儿行为的问卷调查。分析将考察青春期情绪处理过程中杏仁核-PFC连接和奖励处理过程中VS-PFC连接的个体轨迹。然后，父母关爱将在研究间隔期间评估个人的轨迹，以确定育儿是否与青春期这些回路中连接的增长有关。未来的研究将考察类似的影响，如同伴关系、恋爱关系和学业成就。

The long-term objectives of my program of research are to thoroughly characterize the normative development of brain functioning during adolescence and to understand how environmental experiences influence this development. This research will provide fundamental insight into typical brain development and factors that influence this development. Emotional and reward processing are core neural processes that influence behaviour and cognition in a variety of domains including learning, academic achievement, interpersonal interactions, decision making, and goal pursuit. Understanding the development of neural circuitry that underpins these processes is therefore highly important. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions exert top-down inhibitory control over the amygdala's automatic responses to emotionally salient stimuli. Amygdala-PFC functional connectivity thereby governs neural and emotional responses to emotionally salient stimuli. The ventral striatum (VS) is the striatal region most closely associated with reward processing and has bidirectional connections with the PFC. As such, VS-PFC connectivity is a key circuit governing neural responses to rewards. Yet, little is known about the typical development of these circuits. As such, the first short-term objective of this research is to understand the normative development over adolescence of functional connectivity of these circuits. The second short-term objective is to understand how parental care influences this development. Functional connectivity is measured using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) via the temporal correlation between neuronal signals in different brain regions. Participants will be 200 adolescents aged 12-17 (50% female) and at least one parent from the community. At baseline, 18 months, and 36 months follow-ups, adolescents will complete fMRI scans including an emotional face processing and monetary gain-loss task to respectively measure neural correlates of emotion and reward processing. Participants and one parent will complete lab-based observations of parent-adolescent interactions to assess parental care. This task involves planning an enjoyable activity as well as discussing and solving problems identified by the parent and adolescent. Two independent raters will code interactions for affection, involvement, and support (i.e., parental care) expressed towards the adolescent. They will both also complete questionnaire measures of parenting behaviours. Analyses will examine individual trajectories over adolescence of amygdala-PFC connectivity during emotion processing and VS-PFC connectivity during reward processing. Individual trajectories will then be predicted by parental care assessed over the study interval to determine whether parenting is related to growth in the connectivity in these circuits across adolescence. Future research will examine similar influences such as peer and romantic relationships, and academic achievement.