The purpose of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award is to request support to provide the candidate with training in cognitive and affective neuroscience to guide his developing research program focusing on deficits in emotional processing in schizophrenia. There is growing evidence that abnormalities in emotional processing may underlie some of the most persistent and debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia: thus, greater insight into the behavioral and biological mechanisms underlying emotional processing has the potential to significantly inform our understanding of these symptoms, and to more effectively develop both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy treatments to address these symptoms. The primary aim of the research is to examine whether individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate abnormalities in attentional processing, which could significantly influence focus on emotionally positive versus negative features of the environment. In addition, the candidate proposes to develop skills in the use of Eye-Tracking and Event Related Potential (ERP) methodologies in order to assess the time-course and neural circuitry that is critically involved in the cognitive processing of emotional information. The proposed training and research plans are designed to prepare the candidate to: a) design theoretically driven tasks to examine emotion and attention interactions, and b) use these tasks to investigate dysfunctional neural circuitry involved with affective processing in individuals with schizophrenia. To achieve these goals, the candidate will pursue career development activities that focus on development of expertise in affective and cognitive neuroscience literature and methodology, and in ERP analysis and neurophysiology in order to effectively collect and interpret ERP data. Drs. James M. Gold and Gunvant Thaker mentor this work, providing expertise in affective and cognitive neuroscience perspectives, significant experience working with schizophrenia samples in both behavioral, eye- movement, and ERP paradigms, and practice in integrating behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of performance. This training will enable the candidate to develop the skills and expertise necessary to establish an independent line of research examining cognitive, emotional, and neural mechanisms that contribute to the development of schizophrenia.

Public Health Relevance

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects approximately 1% of the world's population. A large proportion of individuals with schizophrenia experience """"""""negative symptoms"""""""" (e.g., avolition, anhedonia) at some point in the course of their illness;however, there are few treatments available to remediate these symptoms. Given that negative symptoms are highly associated with social and functional outcomes, it is of critical importance to conduct research into the neural mechanisms associated with these symptoms, with the aim of using this knowledge to inform novel treatments.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
5K23MH092530-02
Application #
8139126
Study Section
Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging Study Section (APDA)
Program Officer
Chavez, Mark
Project Start
2010-09-08
Project End
2015-06-30
Budget Start
2011-07-01
Budget End
2012-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$155,849
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland Baltimore
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
188435911
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21201
Strauss, Gregory P; Chapman, Hannah C (2018) Preliminary psychometric properties of the brief Negative Symptom Scale in youth at Clinical High-Risk for psychosis. Schizophr Res 193:435-437
Strauss, Gregory P; Frost, Katherine H; Lee, Bern G et al. (2017) THE POSITIVITY OFFSET THEORY OF ANHEDONIA IN SCHIZOPHRENIA. Clin Psychol Sci 5:226-238
Sullivan, Sara K; Strauss, Gregory P (2017) Electrophysiological evidence for detrimental impact of a reappraisal emotion regulation strategy on subsequent cognitive control in schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol 126:679-693
Frost, Katherine H; Strauss, Gregory P (2016) A Review of Anticipatory Pleasure in Schizophrenia. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep 3:232-247
Morra, Lindsay F; Strauss, Gregory P (2016) Severity of hypertension predicts the generalized neurocognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 176:527-528
Strauss, Gregory P; Gold, James M (2016) A Psychometric Comparison of the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms and the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. Schizophr Bull 42:1384-1394
Strauss, Gregory P; Whearty, Kayla M; Morra, Lindsay F et al. (2016) Avolition in schizophrenia is associated with reduced willingness to expend effort for reward on a Progressive Ratio task. Schizophr Res 170:198-204
Strauss, Gregory P; Kappenman, Emily S; Culbreth, Adam J et al. (2015) Emotion regulation abnormalities in schizophrenia: Directed attention strategies fail to decrease the neurophysiological response to unpleasant stimuli. J Abnorm Psychol 124:288-301
Strauss, Gregory P; Waltz, James A; Gold, James M (2014) A review of reward processing and motivational impairment in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 40 Suppl 2:S107-16
Strauss, Gregory P (2013) Translating basic emotion research into novel psychosocial interventions for anhedonia. Schizophr Bull 39:737-9

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