This proposal is designed to facilitate career development of Jeffrey Anderson, MD PhD as an independent investigator to conduct longitudinal neuroimaging studies of functional MR connectivity in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, with particular expertise in functional connectivity abnormalities in autism. Although the applicant has extensive mentored research experience during PhD training in electrophysiology of the brain, and extensive neuroradiological training in functional imaging methods, he has not had experience conducting large clinical imaging investigations, requiring patient recruitment and assessment and multivariate statistical analysis of large imaging datasets. The specific research aims of this proposal develop these skills through a longitudinal study of functional connectivity in autism. There is now extensive evidence that functional connectivity abnormalities between brain regions are present in autism, which continue to develop through childhood and adolescence. These connectivity abnormalities comprise a promising technique for identifying autism subtypes, predicting prognosis, and guiding treatment. Yet the mechanism for connectivity abnormalities remains unknown. This proposal seeks to use a longitudinal investigation of functional connectivity in autism to establish whether connectivity disturbances are generalized, localized to connections of specific path length, or associated with specific functional networks. The longitudinal design will allow assessment of how these connectivity abnormalities develop through late childhood and adolescence, and will leverage the largest imaging dataset of high-functioning autism DTI and volumetric scans from late childhood to early adulthood, allowing cross-modality analysis of brain connectivity. Long term goals of the proposal are to leverage the applicant's combined training in mathematics, neuroscience, and clinical neuroimaging to build a rigorous, broad-based imaging laboratory that can make major contributions to diagnosis and understanding of neurological disorders by probing functional connectivity abnormalities in brain networks using novel imaging methods.

Public Health Relevance

This project seeks to provide mentorship and focused research experience to provide skills necessary for him to lead cutting-edge longitudinal imaging investigations of functional connectivity in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. As a primary application, a longitudinal study will be performed characterizing the mechanism and distribution of functional connectivity abnormalities in autism, yielding immense public health benefits.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Clinical Investigator Award (CIA) (K08)
Project #
5K08MH092697-05
Application #
8777020
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Gilotty, Lisa
Project Start
2010-12-01
Project End
2016-11-30
Budget Start
2014-12-01
Budget End
2016-11-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Utah
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
009095365
City
Salt Lake City
State
UT
Country
United States
Zip Code
84112
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Di Martino, Adriana; O'Connor, David; Chen, Bosi et al. (2017) Enhancing studies of the connectome in autism using the autism brain imaging data exchange II. Sci Data 4:170010
Dean 3rd, D C; Lange, N; Travers, B G et al. (2017) Multivariate characterization of white matter heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorder. Neuroimage Clin 14:54-66
Curtis, Brian J; Williams, Paula G; Jones, Christopher R et al. (2016) Sleep duration and resting fMRI functional connectivity: examination of short sleepers with and without perceived daytime dysfunction. Brain Behav 6:e00576
Dean 3rd, Douglas C; Travers, Brittany G; Adluru, Nagesh et al. (2016) Investigating the Microstructural Correlation of White Matter in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Connect 6:415-33

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