The goals of the Developmental Neuroimaging Core (DNC) are: to provide a flexible concierge approach to facilitating investigation, from consultation and assistance with study design, to full acquisition and interpretation of human imaging data, to training investigative teams to progressive levels of mastery that will allow them to continue and extend their own IDD research agendas. The DNC will provide state-of-the art neuroimaging services to maximize the quality and impact of IDD research by Center investigators, to optimize the application of imaging as a translational tool for innovation in prediction and intervention in developmental disabilities, and to provide a range of consultative and analytic services that will help new and early stage investigators to incorporate imaging research into their research efforts. The DNC is designed to provide capacity to ascertain neural signatures of developmental disability as a critical facet of the comprehensive characterization of patients and pathogenic mechanisms. Moreover, as rapid advances in imaging technology occur, the DNC will continue to make the latest innovations in neuroimaging accessible to the large and growing investigator community at WUSTL studying IDD. This Core advances IDD research through focused expertise in neuroimaging technology: mock scanning; specialized approaches to data acquisition in un- sedated infants and children with IDD; data analyses predicated upon established brain-behavior relationships in developing children; complete data analyses for early through to experienced investigators; an informatics platform with serial measurement and mapping of developmental trajectories.
The Specific Aims are: 1) To provide high-quality comprehensive consultation for study design, including sample selection, subject preparation, technological methods for addressing specific scientific questions, statistical power considerations relevant to sample size and composition, data analytic approaches, brain-behavioral, brain-gene, and brain- environment data linkage, the interpretation of acquired neuroimaging data, and, via the Informatics Unit, its archival storage with other key study variables; 2) To conduct highly cost-efficient data acquisition for IDDRC investigators collecting neuroimaging data in IDD research efforts. This assistance will specify acquisition parameters for each study, implement appropriate subject preparation protocols (e.g. un-sedated infants), optimize image quality for the intended target structures and circuits, and provide all necessary technical support for conducting the scanning procedures, titrated to the need-for-assistance of each respective investigator; 3) To provide data processing and analytic services that optimize the hypothesis-driven analysis, exploration, as well as accurate interpretation of neuroimaging data in IDD research at WUSTL, recognizing that analysis of imaging data?and its integration with genomic, phenomic, and environmental data, can be complex and highly dependent upon the particular imaging modality employed.
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