National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research 5DP5OD037370-02

A computational model for how risk for anxiety and depression influences affective neurodevelopment

NIH funded research at Washington University to study how risk factors for anxiety and depression affect brain development in preschool children, focusing on emotion processing and caregiving interactions using neuroimaging and computational models.

Description

This project aims to test a reinforcement model of how negative affect and caregiving interact to alter brain and emotional development, conferring risk for depression and anxiety. It involves characterizing emotion processing development across the preschool period, fitting a reinforcement learning model to test negative caregiving as a moderator, and testing if frequency of negative affect expression influences these associations. The research uses neuroimaging and reinforcement learning models to understand early caregiving and negative affect influence on preschool brain development.

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