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规范发展，并了解环境经验如何影响这种发展。这项研究将为典型的大脑发育和影响这种发育的因素提供基本见解。情绪和奖励处理是影响各种领域的行为和认知的核心神经过程，包括学习，学术成就，人际交往，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非常重要。 前额叶皮层（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控制。杏仁核PFC功能连接，从而管理神经和情绪反应的情绪显着刺激。腹侧纹状体（ventral striatum，VS）是纹状体中与奖赏加工关系最密切的区域，与PFC之间存在双向联系，因此，VS-PFC连接是控制奖赏反应的关键回路。 然而，人们对这些电路的典型发展知之甚少。因此，本研究的第一个短期目标是了解这些回路的功能连接在青春期的规范发展。第二个短期目标是了解父母的照顾如何影响这一发展。功能性连接是使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）通过不同大脑区域中神经元信号之间的时间相关性来测量的。参与者将是200名12-17岁的青少年（50%为女性）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，包括情绪面部处理和金钱得失任务，以分别测量情绪和奖励处理的神经相关性。参与者和一位家长将完成基于实验室的亲子互动观察，以评估父母的照顾。这项任务包括计划一个愉快的活动，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对情感、参与和支持的互动进行编码（即，父母的关怀）表达给青少年。他们还将完成育儿行为的问卷调查。分析将检查青少年时期杏仁核-PFC连接在情绪处理和VS-PFC连接在奖励处理过程中的个人轨迹。然后，通过在研究期间评估的父母照顾来预测个人轨迹，以确定父母养育是否与青春期这些回路中的连接性增长有关。未来的研究将探讨类似的影响，如同伴和浪漫的关系，和学术成就。

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.