This application describes a Research Network aimed at conceptual and methodological advances in understanding affect dysregulation in adolescence. The central theme for this project is the development and refinement of measures of affect regulation that can be used to investigate neurobehavioral systems in adolescents within a developmental framework. These include tasks that can be used in functional MRI and ERP (event-related potential) studies to examine the development of neurobehavioral systems in both clinical and normative populations of adolescents. It is also important to devise experimental paradigms that address clinically relevant and ecologically valid aspects of emotion and its regulation. This will require developing better conceptual models and formulating specific hypotheses about affective changes in developmental pathways of emotional disorders in adolescence. The long-term goals of this work are to address clinically relevant questions-to identify developmental pathways and mechanisms of affect dysregulation that can inform treatment strategies for early-onset depression, anxiety, and other emotional disorders emerging in adolescence. We focus on adolescence because this developmental phase represents a period of increased vulnerabilities for emotional disorders, yet also presents opportunities for early intervention. Ultimately, mechanistic understanding of the development of affect regulation can lead to prevention strategies targeting high-risk populations prior to the onset of more serious emotional disorders. A deeper understanding of affect regulation in adolescence may also provide insights into behaviors such as increased sensation seeking, risk-taking, and substance use-common behaviors in adolescence that can lead to serious consequences.
The specific aims of this research network are: (1) To develop and refine fMRI and ERP tasks of emotion regulation that can be used in clinical and developmental studies of older children and adolescents. (2) To develop and refine behavioral and experience-sampling methods of assessing emotion and its regulation in the natural environments of adolescents. (3) To improve heuristic models of affect regulation and dysregulation during adolescent development within a cognitive/affective neuroscience framework. (4) To provide outstanding interdisciplinary training experiences for young investigators.
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