Jennifer H. Pfeifer - US grants

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will examine neural representations of self-concept development during adolescence from several perspectives. First, the neural correlates of general self-representations in adolescents will be identified, and related to existing neuroimaging research on adult self-representations. Pilot data suggest there are both similarities and interesting differences between adolescent and adult self-knowledge retrieval to be explored. Second, self-knowledge retrieval in domains with which adolescents are more or less identified will be examined for evidence of a pattern of self-concept development that proceeds from an evidentiary to an intuitive basis. It is predicted that there will be significant activation in more automatic, affective regions involved in motivation and memory formation during self-knowledge retrieval from high identification domains. Finally, patterns of neural activation during self-knowledge retrieval will be related to developmental outcomes including both academic achievement and indicators of psychological well-being and adjustment, such as the Child Behavior Checklist and Interpersonal Competence. It is predicted that the correlation between self-concept and developmental outcomes will be stronger in more-identified domains. [unreadable] [unreadable]

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adolescence is a period of dramatic developmental transitions - from puberty-related changes in hormones, bodies, and brains to a complex psychological reorientation to the social world. The concurrent and marked increase in the onset of many psychiatric syndromes has prompted the search for key developmental processes that drive changes in risk for psychopathology during this period of life. Pubertal development is a prime candidate, but the precise neurobiological mechanisms via which puberty impacts adolescent-emergent mental health problems are still unknown. Hormonal surges associated with pubertal development in early adolescence are believed to impact a range of factors associated with brain development, psychological motivations, and social behavior that have demonstrated associations with risk for mental health symptoms. Therefore, this complex transition spanning molecules, neural circuits, and behavior is particularly well-suited for investigation using the RDoC mechanism. The proposed research focuses on constructs from the RDoC domain of Systems for Social Processes that change rapidly during adolescence: Self-Knowledge, Understanding of Mental States, and Affiliation. We hypothesize that these social processes (and their underlying neural circuitry) mediate the known relationship between the biological cascade of development associated with puberty and adolescent-emergent mental health problems. Accordingly, this proposal aims to conduct a comprehensive multilevel investigation of the connections between social cognitive and biological changes during early adolescence, in order to reveal the ways in which these interconnected changes relate to risk for the emergence of a range of mental health problems that are known to be associated with pubertal development (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety, and deliberate self-harm). Specifically, we will accomplish this goal by conducting a prospective longitudinal neuroimaging study of adolescent girls including three waves of data collection separated by 18 months (initial N=170, age 11 ± 1 years). At each time point we will assess: i) levels of adrenal and gonadal hormones associated with pubertal development, as well as anthropometric data and secondary sex characteristics; ii) brain structure, anatomical connectivity (diffusion tensor imaging), and resting-state functional connectivity; iii) social cognitive brain functioning and behavior (in two paradigms measuring self-evaluation, perspective-taking, and intrinsic value of self-disclosure); and iv) mental health symptoms (particularly of depression, anxiety, and deliberate self-harm). We will use advanced statistical modeling techniques to describe the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between developmental patterns in each of these domains. The project will therefore inform a mechanistic model of the association between developmental and psychopathological processes during this stage of life, one that will critically inform early intervention and prevention strategies.

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Substance use increases dramatically during college and is associated with significant negative effects for individuals and society1?3. To improve the efficacy of interventions designed to decrease collegiate substance use, we must identify risk factors that are amenable to change. Whereas numerous established risk factors (e.g., gender, SES, ethnicity) are difficult or impossible to change, poor self-regulation is malleable6. Substance use and addiction is somewhat more common in poor self-regulators5,7?10, as assessed by self-reports and experimental paradigms with limited ecological validity (e.g., stop-signal, Go-NoGo). Employing more meaningful appetitive self-regulation paradigms (e.g., craving reappraisal) may help clarify the relationship between self-regulation and substance use in late adolescence. Currently, most extant work on reappraisal during this time has relied on experimental paradigms instructing participants to regulate their affective82,83 or appetitive35,36 reactions to stimuli. However, in late adolescence, when many individuals leave the family home, intrinsic motivation and the ability to autonomously self-regulate consummative behavior in the absence of external cues becomes a crucial asset likely to promote positive developmental trajectories. Research strongly supports the relationship between autonomy and health and well-being11, and autonomy enhances self- regulation and is associated with distinct patterns of neural activity49,50. Pilot data from our lab further suggests that neural activity during autonomous regulation is a better predictor than controlled (extrinsically motivated) regulation of various substance use outcomes during the transition to college. In order to better understand the role self-regulation plays in late adolescent substance use, this proposal aims to 1) validate the use of food craving reappraisal as a developmentally appropriate model of appetitive self-regulation in the context of substance use, and 2) characterize the ability of autonomous and controlled regulation to predict substance use trajectories during the transition to college, above and beyond other established risk factors. Appetitive self-regulation will be assessed during neuroimaging, using a paradigm designed to examine autonomous and controlled reappraisal of the desire to consume personally-craved foods13,17,35. We propose to use personally- craved foods as a developmentally appropriate model for resisting a broader range of potentially harmful temptations encountered during the transition to college. Substance use will be assessed four times: once immediately prior to starting college and again each quarter during freshman year. This will allow us to investigate individual differences in changes in substance use and related outcomes. The proposed program of research will help refine neurobiological theories about self-regulation during periods of significant change in external regulatory scaffolding, and is essential to the development of targeted interventions aimed at helping adolescents autonomously resist the temptation to engage in substance use behaviors.

Neuroimaging techniques, including structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have allowed researchers to investigate the neural bases of developmental changes in cognition. In recent years, it has become more common for researchers to obtain multiple measures of the same individual across development. These longitudinal MRI datasets require special consideration for processing and analysis, yet the field as a whole has not standardized best practices for these datasets, which could be one reason why it is difficult to replicate results across laboratories and research studies. A two-day workshop will be open to 60 developmental neuroimaging researchers and will teach best practices for processing, analyzing, modeling, and interpreting longitudinal neuroimaging data. This will help researchers conduct robust and consistent research on how the brain and cognition change across development. Importantly, this workshop will fund at least nine students or trainees who are planning to, or are directly working with, longitudinal neuroimaging data, providing strong practical skills for emerging research scientists in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

It is both timely and vital to hold a workshop for researchers in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience to examine differences in longitudinal modeling, statistical processing and analysis, and interpretation. Recent work has uncovered how methodological differences may be adversely affecting replicability in the field of neuroimaging, and there is an increasing drive to validate the processing and statistical techniques that are employed in neuroimaging research. There has also been increasing support for standardization of techniques and reporting criteria, such as the recent Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) protocol for organizing and describing MRI datasets. The overarching aim of this workshop is to teach best practice guidelines for processing, analyzing, modeling, and interpreting longitudinal structural and functional neuroimaging data, which will inform our knowledge of how the brain and cognition change across development. It will address additional statistical concerns specific to longitudinal neuroimaging that also need validation, and consider standardization of techniques and reporting criteria that will improve the comparability of findings. The main outcome of this workshop will be that researchers leave with answers to questions about processing longitudinal functional and structural MRI data and the correct tools to move forward with research in developmental cognitive neuroscience. This type of work has the potential to answer fundamental questions about neural plasticity and sensitive periods of cognitive development through observing neural changes during learning. It is also inherently related to the fields of developmental affective, social, and clinical neuroscience, and therefore has the potential to translate directly to the prevention and treatment of emerging psychopathology. This workshop will push the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience forward to develop robust and precise models that have strong translational applications for public policy.

ABSTRACT Internalizing problems are common, harmful, and increasing amongst adolescent girls -- creating a public health imperative to identify behavioral and biological mechanisms and/or indicators of risk. Social connection, exclusion, and loneliness are well known to affect emergence and recurrence of internalizing symptoms and disorders in adolescent girls, and recent efforts have begun to focus on the specific role of close friendships in these processes. While the quality of close friendships often buffers against risks for mental disorders, in adolescent girls some supportive features of close friendships may also increase risk for depression, anxiety, and self-harm. One important new context in which to consider these processes is the use of digital technology, especially social media, as adolescents extensively use these methods to connect with friends and peers. It is therefore essential to understand how the dynamics of daily online and offline experiences of social connection, social exclusion, and loneliness impact adolescent girls? mental health. In addition, it is also clear that pubertal development strongly impacts risk trajectories in adolescent girls, likely via concomitant neural and social changes. Neural responses to social exclusion are widely understood to differ in adolescents with depression, anxiety, and self-harm; yet we know very little about how positive aspects of social connection might buffer these individual differences. The Transitions in Adolescent Girls (TAG) study, launched in 2015 (R01 MH107418), was designed to conduct a comprehensive multilevel investigation of the connections between biological and social changes during early-to-mid adolescence, in order to reveal the ways in which these interconnected changes relate to risk for the emergence of a range of mental health problems associated with pubertal development in girls. We enrolled a community sample of N=174 girls (ages 10.0-13.0 years) into a longitudinal study, with 3 waves of data collected every 18 months, including 2 laboratory visits at each wave. The first phase of the TAG study was designed to address the question of whether puberty influences mental health via its impact on neural, self, and social cognitive development). We propose to collect additional waves of data at two more 18-month intervals, bringing the cohort to 16-19 years of age. Critically, we will incorporate an expanded multilevel emphasis on social connection, including both established questionnaires and neuroimaging tasks as well as innovative new methods that leverage mid-to- late adolescents? use of smartphones. This has the added benefit of extending the project to examine the impact of early-to-mid adolescent biological and psychosocial changes on mid-to-late adolescent social connection and mental health -- a key phase of life for both of these processes. We hypothesize that social connection during mid-to-late adolescence is not only predictive of concurrent and near-future mental health, but is also part of a cascading series of developmental and risk processes that are at least in part driven by earlier biological and psychosocial changes.