MIMIC
Moods in Mothers and In Children-3 (MIMIC-3)
This project is a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded multi-wave longitudinal
study examining the role of children's attentional biases as a mechanism of risk in
the intergenerational transmission of depression, and how the form and function of
these biases may change across the transition from childhood to adolescence. This
project focuses on 250 mother-child pairs drawn from the community. Children are aged
7-14 at the start of the study and then are followed every 6 months for 2 years. Additional
details of the study can be found here.
BEAR
Babies' Emotions, Attention, and Relationships-2 (BEAR-2)
This project is a NIMH-funded multi-wave longitudinal study examining early markers
of risk in infants of mothers who have experienced postpartum depression. The study
focuses on transactional relations between mother and infant affect, attention, physiology,
and behavior across early development, with a particular focus on how attentional
biases for facial displays of emotion may develop as an emotion regulation strategy
in infants. The project focuses on 6-12-month-old babies of mothers with postpartum
depression versus no history of depression assessed every 3 months for 12 months.
Additional details of the study can be found here.
Completed Research
IDEA
Integrating DNA, Emotions, & Attention (IDEA) Project
This project is a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded study addressing
the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domain of Negative Valence Systems. This project
involves a one-time assessment of 1,000 children aged 7-11 years and their parent.
The goal of this study is to provide a fine-grained examination of children's attentional
biases using both behavioral (eyetracking) and physiological (event-related potential;
ERP) indices to determine which specific components of children's attention are biased
in relation to their broad symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as the more
specific symptom domains of low positive affect and physiological hyperarousal. In
this study, we are also examining environmental, genetic, and epigenetic influences
on these biases. Additional details of the study can be found here.
