A Knowledge Environment for Neuroimaging in Child Psychiatry

Univ Of Massachusetts Med Sch Worcester, Worcester MA

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Numerous psychiatric disorders can plague the development of children. Each of these disorders manifests as a distinct pattern of clinical, behavioral, etiological, neuroanatomic, and neurofunctional characteristics that challenge the management of the individual patient, as well as the development of successful intervention and prevention strategies. In the area of neuroimaging, a substantial number of studies have been performed;while each study produces a wealth a clinical and imaging data, most of this information remains an untapped resource due to ineffective use of the principles of data sharing and integration. This proposal seeks to develop a set of cohesive neuroinformatics resources to foster integrated research efforts in the study of children with mental illness. This effort is designed to capitalize on the extensive database of over 250 high-resolution volumetric MRI data and associated analyses that has been generated by the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Research Program (CANRP) at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), in conjunction with the Center for Morphometric Analysis (CMA) at the MGH, and the integrated web resources of the Internet Brain Segmentation Repository (IBSR) and the Internet Brain Volume Database (IBVD). As such, this will constitute the first known "Knowledge Environment" for the integrated understanding of the quantitative neuroanatomy in this population of children with psychiatric disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Numerous psychiatric disorders can plague the development of children. Each of these disorders manifests as a distinct pattern of clinical, behavioral, and neuroanatomic traits that challenge the management of the individual patient, as well as the development of successful intervention and prevention strategies. This project will develop a set of cohesive neuroinformatics resources that will help to integrate research efforts to advance the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders.