Other Programs (ticket)
Research Forum: Sensitive Periods in Brain Development: Implications for Child Psychopathology and Therapeutics
The Research Forum is designed to drive the research policy agenda for child and adolescent psychiatry by creating an environment that encourages scientific exploration and collaboration of investigators across disciplines. The primary audience is researchers, although others are invited to attend.
Sensitive periods of development are defined as phases during which experience has a particularly powerful effect on guiding, enhancing or influencing the development of neural circuitry. Considering this, and the known powerful impact of psychosocial factors on risk for mental disorders, the identification of sensitive periods in social and emotional development represents a potentially powerful underexplored area in therapeutics in child psychopathology. Sensitive periods have been well established in several specific developmental domains including visual perception and language acquisition. Knowledge of sensitive periods of visual perception has effectively driven pediatric interventions in areas such as the treatment of strabismus and childhood cataracts, guiding windows of opportunity for more effective treatment. Given the relatively low effect sizes of many child mental health interventions, empirical studies that inform relevant sensitive periods may have significant clinical implications.
Currently there is a paucity of direct data that elucidates sensitive periods in social and emotional development. Sensitive periods are likely to be underestimated in developmental domains pertinent to social and emotional functioning given that they are associated with highly complex, and as of yet, relatively poorly understood neural circuitry. This Research Forum introduces participants to the most current empirical studies that inform whether there may be sensitive periods in human emotional development. Considerations for next steps in research and how such sensitive periods may be applicable to treatment models in developmental psychopathology are reviewed and considered.
The morning session focuses on animal studies that directly inform the question of sensitive periods of brain development. Dr. Cameron presents data that addresses the timing effects of early social disruption on later behavioral outcomes and neural circuitry in primates. Dr. Hensch discusses re-opening of sensitive periods in brain development using pharmacologic tools. Dr. Lee presents data from his studies of fear learning in animal models and in humans that informs altered synaptic plasticity during the putative sensitive period of adolescence.
The afternoon session focuses on human studies. Studies from young children reared in orphanages compared to those adopted to therapeutic foster homes, that indirectly inform the question of sensitive periods in attachment, are presented by Dr. Zeanah. Along a similar line, Dr. Tottenham presents studies of brain function that inform sensitive periods in previously institutionalized children. Dr. Fisher addresses the timing of preventive interventions and the potential role of sensitive periods. An overview and discussion co-led by Drs. Cameron and Luby considers the next most important research steps as well as applications of the findings presented for therapeutic interventions in child psychiatry.
Questions about the Research Forum? Contact Liz Goggin at 202.966.2534 or LGoggin@aacap.org.
Sponsored by the AACAP Research Committee