# Cognitive, socioaffective, and neural development following fetal Zika virus infection

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2021 · $76,454

## Abstract

Project Summary
At its most extreme, fetal Zika virus infection causes microcephaly – the significant shrinking of the fetal brain
and skull. Accumulating evidence suggests that microcephaly is just one possible outcome of fetal Zika virus
infection, however, and that babies born with normal sized heads may have significant central nervous system
pathology. The long-term consequences of this pathology are unknown, leaving open the possibility of a
secondary epidemic resulting from compromised cognition and socioaffective processing that will occur as
babies born during the epidemic age. The proposed work for this supplement augments the Parent Grant by
carrying out evaluations of the consequences of this pathology on sensorimotor development of a cohort of
nonhuman primates infected with Zika virus as fetuses and a group of procedure matched, non-infected
controls. We will evaluate the extent to which maternal and fetal viremia influences behavioral and neural
measures of sensorimotor function. Because macaques develop approximately four times faster than humans,
we will be able to prospectively model pathology that arises – that is, we will be able to predict what pathology
human babies, infected with Zika virus during the 2015-2016 epidemic, will experience as they grow up.
Developmental modeling of this sort is critical for developing effective interventions and treatments to
encourage healthy development and ameliorate psychopathology. Funding via this supplement will support the
doctoral training of a scholar from a background that is underrepresented in, and typically excluded from,
STEM.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10404877
- **Project number:** 3R01HD096436-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $76,454
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-08-19 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10404877

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10404877, Cognitive, socioaffective, and neural development following fetal Zika virus infection (3R01HD096436-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10404877. Licensed CC0.

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