Early Brain Development in Twins

双胞胎的早期大脑发育

• 批准号: 9329592
• 负责人: JOHN Horace GILMORE
• 金额: $ 2.12万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9329592
• 关键词: 12 year old; 4 year old; 6 year old; 9 year old; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Anisotropy; Area; Autistic Disorder; Base of the Brain; Behavior; Birth; Brain; Child; Childhood; Cognition; Cognitive; Coupling; Development; Developmental Process; Diffusion; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Disease; Early Intervention; Enrollment; Environment; Environmental Risk Factor; Functional Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Genes; Genetic; Genetic Models; Genetic study; Goals; Health; Heritability; Human; Individual Differences; Intervention; Knowledge; Language; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Mental disorders; Methodology; Modeling; National Institute of Mental Health; Neonatal; Neurocognitive; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Outcome; Pathogenesis; Phenotype; Prevention strategy; Property; Reporting; Research; Research Domain Criteria; Rest; Risk; Role; Schizophrenia; Short-Term Memory; Structure; Surface; Testing; Thick; Thinness; Time; Twin Multiple Birth; Twin Studies; Variant; brain abnormalities; cognitive development; cognitive function; cohort; cost; critical period; early childhood; environmental intervention; experience; genetic predictors; gray matter; improved; innovation; neuropsychiatric disorder; novel; prenatal; public health relevance; rapid growth; white matter

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Twin studies have provided fundamental information about how genes and environment contribute to individual differences in brain structure and cognitive function in health and psychiatric disease and how these influences change during development. Previous twin studies in older children, adolescents and adults indicate that genetic and environmental influences are region/structure specific and change with age. Early childhood is period of rapid structural and functional brain development that is implicated in the pathogenesis of many psychiatric disorders. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the role of genetic and environmental contributions to brain structure and function in this crucial period of development. The Early Brain Development in Twins study has been the first, and to our knowledge the only, twin study of early childhood brain development. To date we have enrolled and studied over 275 twin pairs, at birth, 1, 2, 4, and 6 years and provided novel and previously unknown information about genetic and environmental influences on brain development in early childhood. In the next funding cycle, we propose to complete our twin study of early childhood brain development by following the current cohort to age 6. MRIs, including structural, diffusion tensor, and resting state functional imaging, will be done at ages , 4, and 6 years. Cognitive development, including RDoC constructs of language and working memory will be assessed. Additional innovations for this funding cycle include the application of a recently developed methodology for delineating cortical thickness and surface area in very young children, and the addition of resting state fMRI. Knowledge gained in this study will improve our basic understanding of human brain development, allow us to determine how modifiable abnormal developmental trajectories associated with risk for psychiatric disease may be, and help us determine when in development early interventions would have the greatest impact. Relevance New knowledge gained in this study will provide a dramatically improved framework for understanding genetic and environmental influences on early childhood brain development, a period of risk for many neuropsychiatric disorders and will provide the fundamental information critical for developing preventative strategies for these disorders.

 描述（适用提供）：双研究提供了有关基因和环境如何促进大脑结构和健康和精神病中认知功能的个体差异以及这些影响在发育过程中的变化的基本信息。对年龄较大的儿童，青少年和成年人的先前双胞胎研究表明，遗传和环境影响是区域/结构特定的，并且随着年龄的增长而变化。幼儿期是许多精神疾病的发病机理实施的结构和功能性大脑发育的时期。因此，在这个关键的发展时期，迫切需要了解遗传和环境对大脑结构和功能的作用。双胞胎研究的早期大脑发育是第一个，据我们所知，唯一对幼儿脑发育的双胞胎研究。迄今为止，我们已经在出生，1、2、4和6年的275对中招募并研究了275对，并提供了有关幼儿期遗传和环境影响的新颖且未知的信息。在下一个融资周期中，我们建议通过遵循当前队列的幼儿脑发育的双胞胎研究，以达到6岁。MRI，包括结构，扩散张量和静止状态功能成像，将在4岁和6年的年龄进行。认知发展，包括语言和工作记忆的RDOC结构。该资金周期的其他创新包括应用最近开发的方法来描述非常小的孩子的皮质厚度和表面积，以及增加静止状态fMRI。在这项研究中获得的知识将提高我们对人脑发育的基本理解，使我们能够确定与精神病风险相关的可改变的异常发育轨迹可能是如何的，并帮助我们确定何时发展的早期干预措施将产生最大的影响。在这项研究中获得的新知识将为理解遗传和环境影响对幼儿脑发育的影响提供动态改进的框架，这是许多神经精神疾病的风险时期，并将为制定这些疾病的预防策略至关重要。