This application seeks five additional years of support for the training grant on emotion research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This training program continues to focus on four specific themes: 1. Personality, temperament and individual differences: Lifespan developmental, genetic, cognitive and biological approaches; 2. Affective neuroscience; 3. Emotion and health; and 4. Emotion and psychopathology. In this renewal, funds are requested for 5 pre-doctoral and 3 post-doctoral stipends/year, the same as our current funding. At the time of the last competing continuation, this training grant provided support for 7 pre-doctoral and 3 post-doctoral stipends/year. Since the time of the last competitive renewal, several additional faculty with research interests centrally in emotion have been added; the brain imaging facility has been strengthened?the Waisman Center Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior?that is focused principally on affective neuroscience; the innovative Center for Healthy Minds has dramatically expanded, which focuses on contemplative neuroscience and its impact on positive affect; novel new data and research strategies have emerged from the NIMH-sponsored Conte Center here at Wisconsin; and several major collaborative projects focused on emotion in aging, various areas of affective neuroscience, and affective development have begun. There are now 17 program faculty, drawn from three academic units, with Psychology as the lead department. Pre-doctoral trainees will be supported for two years and post-doctoral trainees will be offered up to three years of support but will be encouraged to write their own post-doctoral training proposals during their initial year in the program to help leverage the funds we request from this T32. Major elements of the training program include: two 8-week course modules devoted to different aspects of emotion theory and research, focusing primarily on the four themes upon which the program is based, with Davidson and Goldsmith each teaching one module on a rotating basis; a Spring seminar each year associated with the Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion, an annual event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that brings 5-6 outside speakers to campus for a meeting on a specific topic in emotion research; participation in a seminar series devoted to ethical issues in research; participation in periodic meetings of our NIMH-funded Conte Center that focus on the neural bases of individual differences in emotion regulation in adolescents; and participation in monthly emotion groups held in informal off-campus locations (e.g., restaurants) each month. We believe this program is unique and provides an extraordinary opportunity for interdisciplinary training in emotion research.
This program provides a unique interdisciplinary training opportunity for scientists interested in the study of emotion and its relation to mental health and mental illness. Virtually every psychiatric disorder, and many physical disorders, involves a disorder of emotion and we seek to train the next generation of scientists who can make fundamental discoveries in this area and with this new knowledge, develop new empirically-validated treatments. Understanding how emotion contributes to these disorders, the mechanisms by which the relevant brain circuits impact peripheral biology and organ systems, will be essential in the development of treatments that include the mind, brain and body and that are essential for optimal health.
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