Early signals of risk for psychopathology: Developmental approaches informed by the Research Domain Criteria

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Developmental scientists have begun to appreciate and recognize that risk for psychopathology can be identified early in development, and even sometimes before birth. Innovative methods are used for risk detection that include advanced statistical approaches, physiological markers of risk, and the adoption of frameworks that assume mechanisms of risk and recovery can be measured throughout the lifespan. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is one such framework that provides a common language for researchers to advance understanding of the pathophysiology of mental illness (Insel et al., 2010). However, the ways in which the RDoC framework can be applied to studies in the prenatal and infancy periods is unclear. In this symposium we provide four examples from independent laboratories for how RDoC principles can be integrated into developmental science research. In the first talk we present research on intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation – a transdiagnostic marker of risk for a wide range of dysregulated behavior – from pregnancy to toddlerhood. In the second talk we highlight how hippocampal volume in infancy can lead to risk for irritability in early childhood. In the third talk we describe a method for novel sampling strategies to identify transdiagnostic markers for autism phenotypes. In the fourth, we use the example of ADHD to highlight the importance of cognitive developmental trajectories for child psychopathology. The overarching aim is to communicate how RDoC-informed methods can be integrated into developmental research to better uncover the earliest markers of risk for psychopathology.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Liz Conradt, Duke University

Individual Presentations

• Intergenerational transmission of risk for emotion dysregulation - Presenting Author: Liz Conradt, Duke University; Mengyu (Miranda) Gao, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, China; Brendan Dale Ostlund, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Mindy A. Brown, Brigham Young University; Parisa R. Kaliush, University of Utah; Sarah Terrell, University of Utah; Lee Raby, University of Utah; Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah

• Infant hippocampal volume is prospectively associated with irritability in toddlerhood - Presenting Author: Alexander Dufford, Northwestern University; Leigha Alexandra MacNeill, Northwestern University; Ashley Nielsen; Christopher D. Smyser, Washington University School of Medicine; Elizabeth Norton, Northwestern University; Lauren S Wakschlag, Northwestern University

• Developmental Considerations of the RDoC Initiative in Relation to Autism - Presenting Author: Jed T. Elison, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Developmental biobehavioral markers of working memory impairment and psychopathology risk - Presenting Author: Sarah Karalunas, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jason Dude; Hanna C Gustafsson, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU); Hannah Morton; Joel T Nigg, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)