This is a request for a Scientist Development Award to develop long term career plans to integrate the effects of cocaine and other drugs of abuse into the investigation of the neurobehavioral and neurofunctional development of human infants. A comprehensive research plan and a complementary career development plan were proposed that incorporates prior training on the normative development of sensory and motor organization in healthy infants into a research program to investigate developmental outcomes of drug exposure, given the atypical organization of the arousal mechanism in cocaine- exposed infants. Early neurobehavioral measures indicate serious long term effects on behavior for cocaine-exposed infants. The proposed research will examine the mechanisms governing the effects of cocaine on attention and arousal processes. Investigation of developing sensory organization will focus on the possible divergence of cocaine-exposed infants from the developmental sequelae of perceptual processes.Prior work by the Candidate examining normal infant perception of a complex pattern (the herringbone) will be extended to cocaine-exposed infants to test the precocial or delayed emergence of this aspect of pattern sensitivity. In another perceptual domain previously examined by the Candidate, normal healthy infants demonstrate sensitivity to fast motion very early, but follow a longer time course for slow motion sensitivity.The development of slow motion sensitivity may be advanced or additionally delayed by the stimulus-seeking behavior of cocaine- exposed infants. Within the motor domain prior work by the Candidate has examined the emergence of hands-and-knees supported crawling in normal infants and has validated high accuracy kinematic motor analyses as appropriate tools in evaluating motor developmental abnormalities. The investigation of developing motor organization will evaluate the fine components of cocaine- specific behaviors in the neurobehavioral examination as well as locomotor development. In consultation with mentors and preceptors, career and scientific development plans are proposed to enhance the understanding of the multifaceted nature of research into prenatal cocaine exposure by interacting with researchers across a broad range of disciplines, participating in ongoing projects on the NICU and newborn nurseries, learning quantitative analyses of neonate brainstem evoked potentials and the toxicological nature of dopamine- specific drugs, attending scientific meetings and special conferences and directly interacting with the drug abusing population.
| Freedland, R L; Karmel, B Z; Gardner, J M et al. (1998) Prenatal cocaine exposure and stimulus-seeking behaviors during the first year of life. Ann N Y Acad Sci 846:386-90 |
| Karmel, B Z; Gardner, J M; Freedland, R L (1998) Neonatal neurobehavioral assessment Bayley I and II scores of CNS-injured and cocaine-exposed infants. Ann N Y Acad Sci 846:391-5 |
| Karmel, B Z; Gardner, J M; Freedland, R L (1996) Arousal-modulated attention at four months as a function of intrauterine cocaine exposure and central nervous system injury. J Pediatr Psychol 21:821-32 |
