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Principal Investigator: Rachel Emma Lean
Organization: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $54,000
Funding agency: National Institute of Mental Health
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Deficits in effortful control (EC; top-down control of self-regulation involving inhibitory control and executive
attention) represent a major transdiagnostic risk factor for multiple psychiatric disorders in childhood.
Dysfunctional parenting is a strong predictor of impaired EC, making it a potent target for intervention.
Dysfunctional parenting includes behavioral deficits in parenting sensitivity [timely and appropriate responses to
changes in infant physical and emotional needs], along with cognitive deficits in maternal mind-mindedness
[MMM; attunement to infant mental states that govern goal-directed behavior]. MMM may underlie parenting
sensitivity, but prospective links remain unclear. MMM facilitates the transition from external caregiver-based
regulation to self-regulation in early childhood by providing the foundation for intentional mental-state talk to
regulate behavior. While adverse caregiving exposures have profound effects on brain structure, the extent that
MMM impacts infant brain structural and functional connectivity in key brain regions underlying EC during periods
of brain plasticity is unknown. This innovative proposal offers an unprecedented opportunity to address this
scientific question with training at an institution rich with expertise in child psychiatry and neuroscience research.
This K01 will chart the development of EC and related brain networks by leveraging a valuable captured infant
cohort undergoing repeated diffusion (dMRI) and resting state functional (rsfMRI) MRI scans and developmental
evaluations from birth to age 3 years. The applicant will add to the existing study a prospective observational
assessment of MMM, a standardized test of infant executive attention, and examine connectivity in a unique set
of white matter tracts. As the cohort is enriched for poverty, this study will examine novel links between maternal
perinatal psychosocial risk (poverty, depression, anxiety, stress) and later MMM and parenting sensitivity, and
the extent that that psychosocial risk indirectly influences EC via causally linked multiple mediators of MMM and
infant brain connectivity. Findings will elucidate MMM as a modifiable factor that may increase parent sensitivity
to enhance infant brain connectivity and EC to reduce psychopathology. [If MMM alters infant brain connectivity,
findings will underscore infancy as a critical time for targeted preventative intervention before EC deficits emerge
and lead to psychopathology; identify vulnerable infants who may benefit the most from intervention; and inform
the design of novel MMM interventions to enhance infant brain function in networks most sensitive to parenting
inputs and most related to EC.] This award will build upon the applicant’s foundation in child development, school-
age executive attention, and structural MRI by providing [new and more advanced training in the assessment of
mother-infant interactions, the development of EC in infancy, and dMRI and rsfMRI methods.] The applicant will
gain the skills needed to conduct longitudinal research on the caregiving and neurobiological mechanisms of
child psychopathology. This K01 will facilitate an R01 proposal that will modify MMM in a parent-child intervention
to alter risk trajectories linking poverty with aberrant brain connectivity and psychopathology into school-age.
Terms: <0-11 years old><2 year old><2 years of age><3 year old><3 years of age><Active Follow-up><Address><Affect><Age><Anxiety><Attention><Award><Behavior><Behavioral><Birth><Brain><Brain Nervous System><Brain region><Care Givers><Caregivers><Child><Child Development><Child Psychiatry><Child Rearing><Child Youth><Childhood><Children (0-21)><Code><Coding System><Cognitive deficits><Comment><Commentary><DWI (diffusion weighted imaging)><DWI-MRI><Development><Diagnostic><Diffusion><Diffusion MRI><Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Diffusion Weighted MRI><Diffusion weighted imaging><Diffusion-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Dysfunction><Editorial Comment><Emotional><Encephalon><Environment><Evaluation><Foundations><Functional MRI><Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Functional disorder><Goals><Impairment><Impoverished><Infant><Infant Behavior><Infant Development><Infant and Child Development><Inferior><Informal Social Control><Institution><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Investigation><Life><Life Stress><Link><Long-term prospective studies><Longterm prospective studies><MR Imaging><MR Tomography><MRI><MRI Scans><MRIs><Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan><Measures><Mediating><Mediator><Medical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance / Nuclear Magnetic Resonance><Mental Depression><Mental disorders><Mental health disorders><Methods><Mind><Mothers><NMR Imaging><NMR Tomography><Neuropsychologies><Neuropsychology><Neurosciences Research><Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging><Parent-Child Relations><Parent-Child Relationship><Parenting><Parenting behavior><Parents><Parietal><Parturition><Perinatal><Peripartum><Physiopathology><Poverty><Preventative intervention><Process><Protocol><Protocols documentation><Psychiatric Disease><Psychiatric Disorder><Psychologist><Psychopathology><Published Comment><Regulation><Research><Rest><Risk><Risk Factors><Risk Reduction><Scheme><School-Age Population><Self Assessment><Self Regulation><Shapes><Source><Standardization><Stress><Structure><Testing><Time><Training><Viewpoint><Zeugmatography><abnormal psychology><active followup><age 2 years><age 3 years><aged 2 years><aged two years><ages><behavior response><behavioral response><care giving><care giving research><caregiving><caregiving research><childrearing><cognitive defects><cohort><dMRI><depressed mother><depression><design><designing><developmental><diffused><diffuses><diffusing><diffusion tensor imaging><diffusions><early childhood><fMRI><fMRI scan><follow up><follow-up><followed up><followup><functional MRI scan><functional magnetic resonance imaging scan><high risk infant><improved><infancy><infantile><innovate><innovation><innovative><intervention for prevention><interventional strategy><kids><longitudinal, prospective study><maternal depression><mental illness><mental state><mental status><multidisciplinary><neonate><neural imaging><neuro-imaging><neurobiological mechanism><neuroimaging><neurological imaging><neuropsychologic><novel><parent><parent child interaction><parent offspring interaction><pathophysiology><pediatric><perinatal depression><peripartum depression><prevention intervention><preventional intervention strategy><preventive intervention><prospective><psychiatric illness><psychological disorder><psychosocial><reduce risk><reduce risks><reduce that risk><reduce the risk><reduce these risks><reduces risk><reduces the risk><reducing risk><reducing the risk><research on caregiving><response><risk-reducing><school age><skills><substantia alba><three year old><three years of age><two year old><two years of age><verbal><vulnerable infant><white matter><youngster>