# Brain-Behavior Markers of Emotion in Depressed Mothers and Their Daughters

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2021 · $190,916

## Abstract

Daughters of depressed mothers are at extremely high risk (HR) for developing major depressive disorder (MDD)
by early adulthood. To develop more targeted, mechanistic prevention efforts for this HR population, it is essential
to clarify the familial mechanisms implicated in this risk. Prior studies suggest that a dysfunctional neural circuit
characterizes HR offspring during negative social-emotional and motivational processing. Despite replicable
findings documenting this effect, it is not clear whether disrupted neural circuit activation among HR offspring
mirrors that of their depressed mothers, representing a neural signature of depression risk that is transmitted
from the mother to the daughter. It is also largely unknown if and how this neural signature relates to reactivity
and regulation of affect in the real world, which is key to understanding its clinical significance and identifying
brain-behavior targets for prevention and intervention. In the current K23 application, the candidate proposes to
examine neurobehavioral markers of social-emotional and motivational processing in a sample of 40 mothers
with a history of recurrent MDD (rMDD) and their non-MDD, HR daughters (ages 13-16), and 40 mothers with
no history of psychopathology and their non-MDD, low risk (LR) daughters. By combining neural and behavioral
measures with a longitudinal design, the candidate will test whether neural regions implicated in negative social-
emotional and motivational processing (a) differentiate HR from LR dyads and are concordant between mothers
and their daughters, representing a familial risk marker, (b) are predictive of offspring’s behavioral ratings of
affective processing outside of the laboratory using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), and (c) are
associated with the trajectory of offspring’s depressive symptoms over a multi-wave follow-up. In the current
proposal, the candidate seeks to build upon her strong foundation in multiple levels of analysis to study affective
processing and youth depression risk by gaining additional training in three new domains: 1) Developmental
affective neuroscience and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology, 2) Ecological
momentary assessment (EMA), and 3) Advanced statistical modeling for nested, multi-method, longitudinal data.
The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago is an outstanding environment in which to
engage in interdisciplinary training. The candidate's mentorship team (Drs. Phan, Keenan, and Mermelstein) and
consultant team (Drs. Hedeker and Gotlib) have extensive experience in developmental affective neuroscience
methods (including fMRI), longitudinal high risk designs, use of EMA methods, and statistical expertise in
multilevel and longitudinal analyses. The proposed study will inform the design of larger R01 studies examining
whether neural and behavioral mechanisms of risk can be altered to prevent the development of depression in
HR offspring. Th...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10214459
- **Project number:** 5K23MH113793-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Katie L Burkhouse
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $190,916
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2022-04-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10214459

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10214459, Brain-Behavior Markers of Emotion in Depressed Mothers and Their Daughters (5K23MH113793-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10214459. Licensed CC0.

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