research
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Developmental and Clinial Baby
Research Head: Dr. Babett Voigt, Dr. Carolin Konrad |
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Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Silvia Schneider
Prof. Sarah Weigelt
Dr. Carolin Konrad
Julie Poirier,
M.Sc.
Collaborator
Dr. Jane Herbert
Funding
German Research Foundation (SFB 1280, Project A16)
Duration
July 2017 – June 2021
Description
Based on existing animal research, this translational project will examine
qualitative and quantitative (neuro) developmental changes of extinction in
human beings in two critical windows of time for major changes in the
developing brain: infancy/early childhood (forgetting versus re-learning,
maturation of the hippocampus) and adolescence (maturation of the prefrontal
cortex). The developmental trajectories will be charted in the aversive as
well as in the appetitive system to unravel similarities as well as
differences between the two systems. In three studies we will study (1) 200
infants (6-36 months) and (2) 210 adolescents and young adults (12-22 years)
using the same behavioral tasks to assess aversive and appetitive learning and
extinction. In the third study, the 210 adolescents will take part in a
predictive learning task implemented while undergoing neuroimaging. A
multi-level approach investigating behavioral manifestations and physiological
underpinnings (in infants/young children and adolescents) and neuronal
mechanisms (using functional magnetic resonance imaging in adolescents) allows
us to gain insights into the relationship of the development of the brain and
changes in extinction. To our knowledge, the current project will be the first
to provide a systematic account of extinction in infancy/early childhood and
adolescence. Furthermore, it will be the first to translate findings in
rodents on qualitative changes in extinction during infancy to humans.
Understanding the developmental trajectories of extinction not only provides
insight into the mechanisms underlying extinction, but has direct clinical
implications in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology,
potentially translating windows of vulnerability into windows of opportunity
(for timely interventions).