Nicole M. McDonald, Ph.D. - US grants
Affiliations: | 2013 | Psychology | University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL |
Area:
Developmental Psychology, Clinical PsychologyWe are testing a new system for linking grants to scientists.
The funding information displayed below comes from the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools and the NSF Award Database.The grant data on this page is limited to grants awarded in the United States and is thus partial. It can nonetheless be used to understand how funding patterns influence mentorship networks and vice-versa, which has deep implications on how research is done.
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High-probability grants
According to our matching algorithm, Nicole M. McDonald is the likely recipient of the following grants.| Years | Recipients | Code | Title / Keywords | Matching score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 — 2018 | Mcdonald, Nicole M | F32Activity Code Description: To provide postdoctoral research training to individuals to broaden their scientific background and extend their potential for research in specified health-related areas. |
Infant Social Development: From Brain to Behavior @ University of California Los Angeles ? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Using neuroimaging techniques to find biomarkers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related social difficulties will allow for earlier detection of risk: a critical component of identifying which infants need preventive treatment. Neuroimaging may also offer a more sensitive method of predicting and assessing treatment response than focusing only on observable behavior. However, we first need to improve our understanding of typical brain development to identify neural markers that predict individual differences in social behaviors. These neural markers can then become targets for the study of biomarkers of ASD. Better understanding the neural differences associated with ASD and related social difficulties will help to guide the development of treatments that are closely matched to biological areas of deficit and provide promising regions of interest for studies utilizing neuroimaging to predict and assess treatment response. The current proposal is a multi-level (brain function and behavior), longitudinal neuroimaging study of 60 typically developing infants during a critical period in social development. The study will utilize functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain functioning in response to both novel (live social interaction) and well-validated (biological motion) social stimuli at 6 months of age. Identified neural correlates of social stimui will then be applied to predict individual differences in key areas of social functioning in these same infants at 12 months. The applicant's overarching career goal is to conduct research that helps to prevent deficits in social- emotional functioning before they reach clinically impairing levels. The proposed fellowship training is an integral step in this career path. The applicant wil receive intensive training in developmental neuroimaging techniques under the mentorship of a leading researcher in the neurobiology of social cognition and ASD. This project, which combines clinical and developmental research using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, will provide an ideal vehicle for the trainee to develop as an independent researcher in the field of translational developmental neuroscience, so that her research program can help bridge the gaps between social development, neural systems, and clinical research. |
0.972 |
| 2019 — 2020 | Mcdonald, Nicole M | K23Activity Code Description: To provide support for the career development of investigators who have made a commitment of focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. This mechanism provides support for a 3 year minimum up to 5 year period of supervised study and research for clinically trained professionals who have the potential to develop into productive, clinical investigators. |
@ University of California Los Angeles Project Summary Candidate: This application is for a K23 career development award for Nicole McDonald, PhD, an F32 postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (transitioning to assistant professor by award start date). Dr. McDonald?s career goal is to become an independent investigator of atypical social development in order to inform efforts to identify and treat at-risk infants. This K23 award will provide Dr. McDonald with the necessary training and mentored experience to gain expertise in: 1) advanced developmental neuroscience and electrophysiological (EEG) methods of measuring infant brain development; 2) the effects of early medical risk on brain development and social behavior in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates; 3) statistical methods for modeling longitudinal data. Environment: Mentorship will be provided by Drs. Shafali Jeste, Isabell Purdy, and Damla Senturk, experts in EEG methods and brain development in neurodevelopmental disorders, high-risk NICU graduates, and statistical models for complex biomedical data, respectively. Research and Career Development: From the first days of life, brain development occurs in the context of everyday interactions between infants and caregivers. Differences in infant brain function may both precede and follow disruptions in early social interactions, precipitating risk for adverse social outcomes while also offering an opportunity to intervene and improve development. Infants who require extended Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) hospitalizations carry multiple interacting risk factors that increase the likelihood of social deficits, including biological, environmental, and socioeconomic risks. This study will build on the literature on infants with familial risk for autism (i.e., younger siblings of children with autism), which has identified a growing divergence in social communication behavior and brain development between 6 and 12 months of age. Through a collaboration between the UCLA High Risk Infant Follow-Up Clinic and Center for Autism Research and Treatment, this study will examine trajectories of social behavior and brain development from 6 to 12 months in high-risk NICU graduates, infants with familial risk for autism, and low-risk controls. Well-validated measures of social behavior and EEG, an accessible and scalable method of measuring brain function and connectivity during infancy, will be utilized to compare developmental trajectories and examine whether early differences predict variation in social functioning and development at 24 months. It is our eventual goal to apply the identified behavioral and brain markers to a targeted study of an intervention designed to optimize social development in high-risk NICU graduates. These aims directly address NICHD research priorities; in particular, ?research on biomarkers and outcome measures for intellectual and developmental disability symptoms, severity assessments, and treatments, especially outcomes targeting cognitive, behavioral, social, and medical issues.? |
0.972 |