Functional Development Abnormalities Associated with Genetic Risk of Bipolar during Infancy | Gao | $71,302

Functional Development Abnormalities Associated with Genetic Risk of Bipolar during Infancy 2013 Award: $71,302 Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common psychiatric illness affecting ~1% to 2% of the population, which is characterized by affective symptoms varying between depression and mania. However, there is a profound lack of knowledge regarding the brain’s functional disruption mechanism underlying this disorder, especially during early childhood which is increasingly recognized as a critical time for this neurodevelopmental disorder. The use of neuroimaging technology to study infants with a genetic risk of BD (biological mother diagnosed with BD) provides a wonderful opportunity to investigate the earliest functional disruption mechanisms related to this disorder, which is critical for the derivation of new early diagnosis and intervention strategies. Dr. Wei Gao, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research Center (BRIC) at the University of North Carolina [...]