Cognitive Control in Borderline & Trauma Psychopathology

Yale University, New Haven CT

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K23 Mentored Patient Oriented Research Career Development Application proposes training in cognitive psychology to prepare a clinical psychologist as a cognitive clinical scientist, able to initiate independent research translating basic science approaches from cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience to study psychopathology. Professor Marcia K. Johnson, a leading cognitive psychologist, is the primary mentor and offers the full support of her laboratory. Coursework and directed studies in cognitive psychology and neuroscience are proposed (memory, attention, perception, information processing, neuroanatomy, neuropathology, neuroimaging). The research plans a series of experiments using behavioral methods from cognitive psychology with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine cognitive control mechanisms shared and unique to DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and to identify potential differences in the neural correlates of these processes in these groups. The approach builds on preliminary data suggesting differential responses to emotional stimuli in BPD and PTSD patients;other preliminary data demonstrate feasibility of using simple cognitive tasks to recruit fundamental control processes and to identify brain regions associated with them. To study cognitive control in borderline and trauma psychopathology, 6 experiments (3 behavioral, 3 fMRI) are proposed. These will examine early stages of cognitive control of emotion: in each pair of experiments, behavioral data will identify group-related differences in basic cognitive processes (refresh, note, rehearse) under conditions manipulating the need for control while fMRI data will provide information about brain regions implicated in control across diagnostic groups. Results will suggest methods to improve diagnosis and should provide leads for future efforts to identify treatment targets more specific than those in the current descriptive approaches.