The central hypothesis of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project is that categorical mental disorders do not """"""""line up"""""""" one-to-one with variations in the functioning of neural circuits. Rather, neural circuits align with narrower neurobehavioral constructs that are themselves related to psychopathology in cross-cutting fashion: Dysfunction in each construct is related to multiple forms of psychopathology and most forms of psycho- pathology are related to dysfunction in more than one construct. Failure to refocus research with this is mind will continue to obscure the neurobiology of psychopathology. We endorse these hypotheses, and propose to test them.
Our first aim i s to test hypotheses regarding the association between specific neural circuits and five neurobehavioral constructs in the RDoC positive and negative valence and cognitive systems domains. Using fMRI, we will assay the functioning of a mesocorticostriatal system involved in approach motivation and reward attainment (pleasure), a limbic/paralimbic system involved in anticipation and response to aversive-threatening stimuli, and control systems involved in effortful response inhibition. Thi addresses the first goal of the RDoC initiative of mapping constructs to brain circuits. RDoC's second goal is to relate constructs to psychopathology to enable a new classification of psychopathology informed by neurobiology. To advance this goal, our second aim is to test the hypothesis that RDoC constructs are associated with psychopathology in a complex but tractable cross-cutting manner. We will map RDoC constructs to empirically-defined dimensional conceptions of psychopathology based on strong evidence that prevalent mental disorders are organized by their correlations (comorbidity) into distress, fears, and externalizing dimensions. Using structural equation modeling, we will test the hypothesis that the five selected RDoC constructs are related in cross-cutting fashion to these three dimensions of psychopathology. This reflects our hypothesis that the mental disorders that load on each broad dimension cluster together precisely because they share the same pattern of variations of these neurobiological constructs and etiologic influences. We will also test the possibility that relativ differences in the expression of RDoC constructs produces heterogeneity in the expression of symptoms within the three dimensions of psychopathology.
Our third aim i s to test the crucial hypothesis that variations in functioning of the neural circuits are associated with psychopathology in the same cross-cutting manner and their associations with psychopathology are mediated by the RDoC constructs. Our proposed study is based on a highly informative sample of 400 young adult twins strategically selected from a large representative cohort. Participants who exhibited psychopathology in adolescence will be steeply oversampled to greatly enrich the sample on psychopathology. Critically, the twins will allow us to determine the extent to which genetic influences are shared in common by the neural circuits, constructs, and dimensions of psychopathology.

Public Health Relevance

Because mental disorders and substance abuse create enormous personal distress, disability, and economic burden, there is an urgent need to understand the nature of these disorders to improve prevention and treatment. The present study, proposes to test key hypotheses of the Research Domains Criteria (RDoC) initiative, which posits that research on the neurobiological bases of psychopathology has been misled because dysfunctional brain circuits do not align one-to-one with disorders, but align with a number of functional constructs that should be the focus of study. We propose to use a subsample from a large and representative cohort oversampled on psychopathology to elucidate neural circuits associated with five key RDoC constructs, and to test the central RDoC hypothesis that these constructs are associated with psychopathology in a complex but predictable cross-cutting fashion.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH098098-02
Application #
8544499
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-S (04))
Program Officer
Rumsey, Judith M
Project Start
2012-09-12
Project End
2016-05-31
Budget Start
2013-06-01
Budget End
2014-05-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$1,034,939
Indirect Cost
$255,294
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004413456
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37212
Lahey, Benjamin B; Zald, David H; Perkins, Scott F et al. (2018) Measuring the hierarchical general factor model of psychopathology in young adults. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res 27:
Van Hulle, Carol A; Waldman, Irwin; Lahey, Benjamin B (2018) Sex Differences in the Genetic and Environmental Influences on Self-Reported Non-aggressive and Aggressive Conduct Disorder Symptoms in Early and Middle Adolescence. Behav Genet 48:271-282
Hinton, Kendra E; Lahey, Benjamin B; Villalta-Gil, Victoria et al. (2018) Right Fronto-Subcortical White Matter Microstructure Predicts Cognitive Control Ability on the Go/No-go Task in a Community Sample. Front Hum Neurosci 12:127
Lahey, Benjamin B; Class, Quetzal A; Zald, David H et al. (2018) Prospective test of the developmental propensity model of antisocial behavior: from childhood and adolescence into early adulthood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 59:676-683
Zald, David H; Lahey, Benjamin B (2017) Implications of the Hierarchical Structure of Psychopathology for Psychiatric Neuroimaging. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2:310-317
Lahey, Benjamin B; Krueger, Robert F; Rathouz, Paul J et al. (2017) A hierarchical causal taxonomy of psychopathology across the life span. Psychol Bull 143:142-186
Villalta-Gil, Victoria; Hinton, Kendra E; Landman, Bennett A et al. (2017) Convergent individual differences in visual cortices, but not the amygdala across standard amygdalar fMRI probe tasks. Neuroimage 146:312-319
Lahey, Benjamin B; Krueger, Robert F; Rathouz, Paul J et al. (2017) Validity and utility of the general factor of psychopathology. World Psychiatry 16:142-144
Chung, Moo K; Vilalta-Gil, Victoria; Lee, Hyekyoung et al. (2017) Exact Topological Inference for Paired Brain Networks via Persistent Homology. Inf Process Med Imaging 2017:299-310
Zald, David H; Treadway, Michael T (2017) Reward Processing, Neuroeconomics, and Psychopathology. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 13:471-495

Showing the most recent 10 out of 14 publications