Awardee OrganizationUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
Description
Abstract Text
This project comprises two longitudinal twin studies that integrate the study of affective style, affective symptomatology, and affect-related physiology in children and adolescents. In Study A, the twins have already been followed longitudinally with a variety of measures, including detailed videotaped observations. An additional follow-up at age 11-12 years will allow developmental characterization of affective style and frank anxiety/depression. The genetic bases of improvement; chronic course; onset of comorbid symptoms, and other developmental variables will be pursued, as will the link between behavior and some of the neuroscience
variables examined by other Center projects. Study A will also seek to identify toddler age risk factors (e.g., shy/inhibited temperament, obsessive features and repetitive movements, auditory and tactile sensitivities, and difficulties in down-regulating negative affect) that might be associated with later internalizing behavioral patterns. Study A shares an assessment protocol with Project 5 (Essex/Klein). To examine the impact of non-genetic factors (and other issues), genetically identical (MZ) cotwins from Study A who are discordant for chronic anxiety, as well as controls, will participate in structural neuroimaging studies. Core C will perform whole brain
tensor-based morphometry, which should be more sensitive than most prior methods in determining whether regions of the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala are structurally altered in affected individuals and in their non-affected cotwins. Study B examines the association of individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation with several
psychophysiological measures (EEG, fear-potentiated startle, sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiac measures) as well as basal and reactive cortisol, all within a behavior-genetic framework. One role of Project 4's twin methodology in the broader Center is to help resolve the issue of causal direction in studies of experience and context in affective development. Another role is to determine whether physiological substrates of fearfulness/anxiety actually have a genetic basis, and whether common genetic variance accounts for affect-physiology associations.
Public Health Relevance Statement
Data not available.
NIH Spending Category
No NIH Spending Category available.
Project Terms
adolescence (12-20)amygdalaanxietybehavioral /social science research tagbehavioral geneticschild behaviorclinical researchcortisolelectroencephalographyemotionshippocampushuman subjectlongitudinal human studymiddle childhood (6-11)morphometryneuroimagingprefrontal lobe /cortexpsychopathologypsychophysiologystartle reactiontwin /multipletvideotape /videodisc
No Sub Projects information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
Publications
Publications are associated with projects, but cannot be identified with any particular year of the project or fiscal year of funding. This is due to the continuous and cumulative nature of knowledge generation across the life of a project and the sometimes long and variable publishing timeline. Similarly, for multi-component projects, publications are associated with the parent core project and not with individual sub-projects.
No Publications available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
Patents
No Patents information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
Outcomes
The Project Outcomes shown here are displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health. NIH has not endorsed the content below.
No Outcomes available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
Clinical Studies
No Clinical Studies information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
News and More
Related News Releases
No news release information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
History
No Historical information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004
Similar Projects
No Similar Projects information available for 5P50MH069315-03 0004