Factors that Influence Risk and Resilience Trajectories of Neurodevelopment

Osu Center For Health Sciences, Tulsa OK

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

“This study is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative bolsters research across NIH to improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction.” Neurodevelopmental processes are shaped by dynamic interactions between genes and environments. To elucidate how various environmental hazards impact development, it is imperative that a large and demographically diverse sample of the US population establish a normative template of developmental trajectories over the first 10 years of life. To accomplish this, the Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study will deploy a harmonized, optimized, and innovative battery of neuroimaging (MRI, EEG) measures complemented by an extensive battery of behavioral, physiological, and psychological tools to understand neurodevelopmental trajectories in a sample of 7,500 mother-infant dyads followed for the first decade of life. The proposed diversity supplement will complement the larger project and will train a postdoctoral research fellow in advanced research methodology, data collection methods, and grantsmanship in order for her to gain research independence. The primary research project for the applicant associated with parent grant involves the two following specific aims: 1) Identify key developmental windows during which protective influences are most impactful on neurodevelopmental trajectories; and 2) Assess the impact of early caregiver-child relationships on later developmental outcomes. Aim 1 will be accomplished by utilizing already collected data from PI and mentor Morris’s broader program of research that includes longitudinal observational, survey, and interview data collected from mothers and infants (n=105; 32% ethnic minority, 34% rural). Aim 2 will be accomplished by working with the subcommittee of the national HBCD workgroup focused on observational assessments. Mentor and MPI Morris is co-leading this workgroup with Co-Mentor Laurie Wakschlag from Northwestern University. Together, they are developing a coding system for the Emotion Regulation in Context Assessment (ERICA) that is culturally informed and pragmatic, including a system for live coding. Candidate Barlaan will actively be involved in evaluating the ERICA’s coding system and will help analyze the qualitative data that will be collected as part of the cultural sensitivity focus of the ERICA. The mentoring team includes internal and external mentors with expertise in maternal substance use; infant mental health; research methods; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and developmental neuroimaging. The application describes an in-depth mentoring plan that utilizes the various strengths of the team and will strengthen candidate Barlaan’s skills and knowledge base positioning her as an independent researcher.