# Emotion Processing: Risk for Psychopathology in Children

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2020 · $591,223

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
These experiments will further understanding about how and why child abuse leads to a broad range of mental
and physical health problems. Although millions of children experience various forms of child abuse each year
in the US, little is understood about how this experience influences brain-behavioral development. The General
Aim of this research is to determine how environmental experience shapes neural circuitry in ways that lead to
child mental health problems, and determine how these systems can be targeted to provide treatments for
affected individuals. Here, we will test aspects of learning that might underlie problems in abused children. Once
we identify a mechanism, we will advance our basic science to a pre-clinical space by determining if these
mechanisms are responsive to laboratory manipulations. The Specific Aims are: (1) To specify the mechanisms
affected by child abuse that lead to developmental changes in systems needed to effectively learn to
communicate, interpret, and regulate emotion in the context of social interactions; (2) To determine which of
these processes are most amenable to change through experimental manipulation. The proposed experiments
combine neuroimaging, behavioral, and computational approaches to examine precise and novel questions
about how experiences of child abuse are transformed into disruptions of the brain networks underlying
emotional pathologies. This project: (1) Examines developmental change in children ages 8-14 years, covering
critical pubertal transitions when many mental health problems emerge, (2) Probes discrete developmental
mechanisms that can be targeted for intervention, (3) Is amply powered to properly test the hypotheses, (4)
Characterizes aspects of relevant brain-behavior relationships are related to both RDoC dimensional constructs
and DSM diagnoses, and (5) Employs sophisticated computational rigor to truly interrogate the critical questions
under examination. Because child abuse is a powerful determinant of many subsequent mental health problems,
the data generated from this project has profound implications for conceptualizing novel and more precise
treatments for vulnerable children. It will do so by determining effects of chronic stress exposure on human neural
circuitry early in development, when the brain may be particularly sensitive to environmental influences. The
project moves away from description of risk groups to defining and specifying mechanistic ways in which the
environment creates long-term effects on brain and behavior. These foci hold tremendous promise for
advancement of knowledge and application to improvement of public health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9986031
- **Project number:** 5R01MH061285-18
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** SETH D POLLAK
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $591,223
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2001-08-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9986031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9986031, Emotion Processing: Risk for Psychopathology in Children (5R01MH061285-18). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9986031. Licensed CC0.

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