# Developmental Neuroscience and Child Psychopathology

> **NIH NIH T32** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $480,315

## Abstract

Developmental neuroscience and psychopathology is a rapidly growing domain with established success and
great potential to inform the understanding of the causal pathways and mechanisms of mental illness. This
T32, which is focused on this domain, is co-led by Drs. Luby and Barch (with complimentary expertise in
developmental psychopathology and neuroscience), and has been very successful in the first cycle of funding,
enjoying a highly competitive national applicant pool and successfully launching all of the young scientists who
have completed the program thus far. We seek to renew and expand this training grant, adding new expertise
in a wider range of neuroimaging measures, as well as new faculty mentors with expertise in the neural effects
of the gut microbiome. From a public health perspective, an infusion of new research scientists in the area of
developmental neuroscience and psychopathology is a high priority. The proposed multi-disciplinary training
approach is guided by a conceptual model that examines emotional, cognitive, behavioral, neurobiological and
genetic and environmental aspects of psychopathology from a developmental perspective. Further, this training
program is guided by a perspective that recognizes that the risk, onset, and course of psychiatric disorders
arises through a complex interplay of brain developmental processes influenced by psychosocial, genetic, and
biological (including gut microbial) factors that interact beginning in utero and continue throughout
development. Numerous investigators at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) have a rich track record
of experience in many aspects of child neuroimaging and related methods, including a focus on structural and
functional magnetic resonance approaches in very early childhood, evoked response potentials (ERP) and
high density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT). Further, WUSTL has an international reputation in
psychiatric genetics and gut microbiome work, with many investigators who can bring both behavioral and
molecular genetic approaches to bear on understanding the neurobiology of developmental psychopathology.
The program mentors have a rich body of available databases derived from longitudinal studies, several of
which began in early childhood and in utero. The program mentors provide a unique multidisciplinary training
environment in which to pursue this exciting domain focused on childhood, given the established collaborations
between child researchers in the WUSTL School of Medicine clinical and basic departments, and the state of
the program in neuroscience and neuroimaging at WUSTL that has been at the forefront of developmental
cognitive and affective neuroscience. Further, interactions between researchers in basic and clinical
developmental neuroscience offer an ongoing opportunity to help train the next generation of young scientists
who can pursue questions about the developmental etiology of psychopathology from the perspective of core
psychol...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9908182
- **Project number:** 5T32MH100019-08
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Deanna Barch
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $480,315
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9908182

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9908182, Developmental Neuroscience and Child Psychopathology (5T32MH100019-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9908182. Licensed CC0.

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