[APDA Membership Roster] [APDA Meeting Rosters]

The Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging Study Section focuses on psychopathology and behavioral, cognitive and emotional disorders in adults. Behavioral, cognitive, socioemotional, neurobiological, behavioral and molecular genetic, and neuroimaging approaches are examined. Emphasis is on human studies of etiology, diagnosis, phenotypic description, comorbidity, and intervention in adult disorders, such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, regulation disorders, personality disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and sleep disorders. Specific areas covered include:

• Adult Psychopathology: Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, clinical course and outcomes in mental health disorders of adulthood, including schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, sleep disorders, substance use disorders, and personality disorders.
• Disorders of Aging: Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, and course in deficits and disorders associated with aging, including dementia; mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Etiology and Mechanisms: Biological, genetic and neural factors underlying aging disorders and adult psychopathology. Included are molecular genetic and behavioral genetic studies, neuropathological studies, neurochemical and neuroimaging studies with emphasis on the relationship between these factors and clinical or functional profile over time.
• Acquired Disorders: Disorders affecting behavioral outcome including studies of acquired deficits and disorders due to traumatic brain injury or substance abuse.
• Intervention studies: Research addressing identification, treatment and/or rehabilitation methods for adults with psychopathology or disorders of aging.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders [NPAS]
Pathophysiological Basis of Mental Disorders and Addictions [PMDA]
Psychosocial Development, Risk, and Prevention [PDRP]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities [CPDD]
Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology [BGES] 
 

[BRLE Membership Roster] [BRLE Meeting Rosters]

The Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning and Ethology Study Section reviews applications concerned with basic biobehavioral processes and adaptation across the lifespan [infancy through old age]. The Study Section primarily considers research with non-human animals [vertebrates and invertebrates] but relevant work with humans is also included. Normal and disordered processes are addressed. Although the focus is on behavior, studies may also consider related neural, hormonal, and genetic factors. Methods include [but are not limited to] behavioral experiments, naturalistic observation, pharmacologic interventions, and computational modeling. Specific areas covered include:

• Learning, cognition, and behavioral control: Classical and operant conditioning; sensitization and habituation; choice; observational and social learning; sensory, perceptual, spatial, motor, and navigational abilities; timing, counting and other quantitative abilities; attention; memory; categorization; problem-solving; executive function.
• Behavioral mechanisms of substance abuse: Preferences and aversions; craving; tolerance and sensitization; discriminative and reinforcing effects of abused substances; subjective, sensory, perceptual, and performance effects; vulnerabilities to dependence; social influences; learning-theoretic and behavioral economic approaches.
• Animal models of psychopathology and treatment: Processes underlying fear, depression, mania, violence, regulatory dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction, behavioral [dis]inhibition; genetic, biological, and social influences on development of pathology; behavioral interventions; behavioral aspects of psychopharmacologic interventions.
• Social behavior and communication: Social organization; attachment, affiliation, mate choice and parent-offspring interaction; dominance, aggression and peacemaking; socialization; play; organization and function of communication processes.
• Behavioral development: Perceptual, motor, and cognitive development; social and communicative development; sexual and reproductive development; development of behavioral control; prenatal influences; behavioral teratology; behavior genetics.
• Regulatory and homeostatic processes: Feeding, drinking and other ingestive behaviors; sexual and reproductive behaviors; sleep and wakefulness; thermo-regulation; biological rhythms and cycles; activity levels; related perceptual, motivational, and action systems; behavioral and social influences on hormone action and gene expression.
• Studies of basic learning principles and pharmacology applied to self- injurious behavior may also be assigned here.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology and Behavior [NNB]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities [CPDD]
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention [PDRP]
Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging [APDA]
Biological Rhythms and Sleep [BRS]
Social Psychology and Interpersonal Processes [SPIP]

[CP Membership Roster] [CP Meeting Rosters]

The Cognition and Perception Study Section reviews applications investigating normal and disordered cognition and perception and their development across the lifespan [infancy through old age], involving behavioral, neuroimaging, psychophysiological, neuropsychological, and mathematical/computational modeling approaches. Specific areas covered include:

• Perception: higher order perceptual mechanisms for all sensory modalities; object and scene recognition; processing of spatial and temporal relations; complex auditory events; intermodal perception
• Attention: attentional control and allocation; capacity and resource limitations; automatization
• Executive Function: planning and monitoring of complex behaviors; coordination of cognitive operations; consciousness
• Learning, Memory, and Knowledge: Encoding, consolidation, and retrieval processes; short-term, working, and long-term memory; episodic/semantic, declarative/procedural, explicit/implicit and other types of memory and their interactions; categorization; expert knowledge; skill learning; rule induction; roles of instruction and practice
• Reasoning, Decision Making, and Problem Solving: use of rules, models, strategies, and heuristics; deductive and inductive reasoning; mathematical and statistical reasoning; analogical reasoning; choice behavior; creativity
• Differences in cognitive abilities: individual differences, developmental/age-related changes in knowledge, strategies and processing speed; plasticity; effects of training and education

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Language and Communication [LCOM]
Cognitive Neuroscience [COG]
Central Visual Processing [CVP]
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory [LAM]
Aging Systems and Geriatrics [ASG]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities [CPDD]
Social Psychology and Interpersonal Processes [SPIP]

[CPDD Membership Roster] [CPDD Meeting Rosters]

The Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section focuses on developmental disabilities and mental health disorders with origins in early development in infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Behavioral, cognitive, socioemotional, neurobiological, behavioral and molecular genetic, and neuroimaging approaches are examined. Emphasis is on human studies of etiology, diagnosis, phenotypic description, and intervention in developmental disabilities and mental health disorders. Specific areas covered include:

• Developmental Disabilities: Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, and developmental course of developmental disorders including autism, mental retardation, ADHD, motor problems, and learning disabilities.
• Child Psychopathology: Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, clinical course and outcomes in child and adolescent psychopathology including mood disorders, behavior disorders, eating disorders, autoimmune disorders, stress disorders, personality disorders, and substance use disorders.
• At-risk Infants: Short- and long-term functional and clinical outcome of infants and children with identified risk factors including early brain injury, prematurity, low birth weight, genetic risk, environmental risk and teratogen exposure, including maternal substance use.
• Etiology and Mechanisms: Biological, genetic and neural factors underlying developmental disorders and child psychopathology. Included are molecular genetic and behavioral genetic studies, neuropathological studies, neurochemical and neuroimaging studies, and studies of teratogenic exposures, with emphasis on the relationship between these factors and clinical or functional outcomes over time.
• Genetic and Acquired Disorders: Disorders affecting behavioral outcome including studies of genetic disorders (e.g., Williams Syndrome, Prader-Willi Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Down Syndrome) and acquired disorders due to traumatic brain injury, early CNS impairment, prenatal exposure to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, and prenatal or postnatal exposure to lead, mercury and other toxins.
• Intervention studies: Research addressing early identification, treatment and/or rehabilitation methods for children with developmental or mental health disorders.
  

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Developmental Brain Disorders [DBD]
Pathophysiological Basis of Mental Disorders and Addictions [PMDA]
Psychosocial Development, Risk, and Prevention [PDRP]
Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging [APDA]
Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders [NPAS]

[LCOM Membership Roster] [LCOM Meeting Rosters]

The Language and Communication Study Section reviews applications investigating language and other types of communication and their development across the lifespan [infancy through old age], primarily in humans. All forms of language and communication, both normal and disordered, are considered.  Research methods include [but are not limited to] psychological experiments, naturalistic observation, linguistic and logical analyses, computational modeling, neuroimaging, and genetic studies. Specific areas covered include:

• Perception and production of language: spoken, written, gestural, and tactile; phonetic, phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic analysis; semantic and conceptual interpretation; inference; communicative intentions and speech acts; discourse and conversation processing; idioms and figurative language; dialect, register, and style; code switching; metalinguistic abilities
• Language development: Acquisition of first and second language, language change in adulthood; literacy development, bilingualism and multilingualism; sign language; language decline.
• Perceptual and cognitive processes underlying reading and writing abilities; acquisition and development, fluency, instructional methods, interventions for reading and writing disorders.
• Non-linguistic communication: Facial, manual, and bodily gestures; vocal, pictorial, and multimedia communication
• Neurobiological and genetic foundations underlying language and communication abilities; including speech, reading and writing, non-human communication.
• Nature, origins, developmental course, assessment, prevention, treatment and remediation of language and communication disorders (e.g., aphasia, dyslexia, dementia-related impairments, phonological disorders, specific language impairment).
• Relations between language and thought; social roles and norms on use of language and other forms of communication; social-cultural influences of assessment and interventions for language and communication disorders.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Motor Function, Speech and Rehabilitation [MFSR]
Perception and Cognition [CP]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disorders [CPDD]
Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning and Ethology [BRLE]
Cognitive Neuroscience [COG]
Developmental Brain Disorders [DBD]
Aging Systems and Geriatrics [ASG]
Genetics of Health and Diseases [GHD]

[MESH Membership Roster] [MESH Meeting Rosters]

The Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Emotion, Stress and Health Study Section reviews applications on the bidirectional interactions of stress, emotion, and physical and mental illness and health, with an emphasis on underlying biological mechanisms. Specific areas covered include:

• Subjective emotional states, emotional expression, regulation of emotion and mood, socioemotional development, emotional consequences of life events and stressful conditions, resilience, and cognitive influences on emotion, stress, and coping.
• Bidirectional relationships of affect and stress with psychological function, neurobiological, neuroendocrine, and immune substrates. Methods include neuroimaging, imaging, psychophysiology, cardiovascular reactivity, respiratory function, HPA axis, arousal, and startle.
• Clinical studies of the interactions of sleep and circadian rhythm with stress and health.
• Influence of personality, affective and cognitive factors, temperament, genetic predispositions, developmental and family experiences, marital status, social relationships, sexual identity, gender, age, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status on affect and stress and their linked CNS and ANS processes.
• Effects of affect and stress on cognitive and motor function, pain and other symptom perception, participation in daily life activities, subjective well-being and quality of life, and social interaction, coping processes and outcomes.
• Biological responses to acute or chronic psychological stress and their moderation by individual, situational, or environmental factors or physiological factors.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology and Behavior [NNB]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities [CPDD]
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention [PDRP]
Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging [APDA]
Biological Rhythms and Sleep [BRS]
Biobehavioral Learning, Regulation and Ethology [BRLE]
Social Psychology and Interpersonal Processes [SPIP]

[MFSR Membership Roster] [MFSR Meeting Rosters]

The Motor Function, Speech and Rehabilitation Study Section reviews applications on normal and disordered motor function, including speech and voice production. Function across the lifespan [infancy through old age], in humans and other animals, is addressed. Also included are the development and evaluation of behavioral preventive and therapeutic interventions for movement, speech, voice, and related disorders. Although the focus is on behavior, studies may also consider associated anatomical, physiological, neural, hormonal, and genetic factors. Methods include [but are not limited to] behavioral experiments, physiological measurement, acoustic analysis, structural and functional imaging, and computational modeling. Specific areas covered include:

• Movement: Control of limbs and extremities; body posture and balance; locomotion; head, jaw, mouth, laryngeal, eye, facial and related movements; sensory-motor integration; perception – action; motor learning and motor skills; swallowing; movement disorders [including dyskinesia, dysphagia, dyspraxia, dystonia, paralysis, parkinsonism, repetitive stress injury, spasticity, tremor].
• Sound production: Motor and perceptual aspects of production of speech and other sounds via respiratory, laryngeal, and articulatory mechanisms; interactions of motor, acoustic and perceptual aspects of sound production; relations with breathing, chewing, swallowing, etc.; speech, voice, and related disorders [including dysarthria, dysfluency, dysphagia, dysphonia].
• Normal and abnormal development of movement and sound production; perceptual – motor development; aging-related changes; interactions with other physical conditions.
• Prevention and treatment of movement, speech, voice, and related disorders/disabilities; physical rehabilitation following disease or injury; prosthetic and adaptive technologies; related exercise.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Sensorimotor Integration [SMI] 
Language and Communication [LCOM]
Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Science [MRS]
Cognition and Perception [CP]
Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning and Ethology [BRLE]

[SBIR/STTR Rosters]

SBIR/STTR applications reviewed by the BBBP IRG cover a broad spectrum of research on all aspects of biobehavioral and behavioral processes in normal and disordered populations. Applications are assigned to one of two study sections depending upon the specific focus of the research.

Small Business: Science Education, Communication and Childhood Disorders [BBBP (10)] This small business study section reviews applications having to do with the following topics:

• science education for the non-professional and educational technology, 
• speech [including augmentative and alternative communication devices and automated translation devices], deafness, language and reading;
• childhood psychopathology,
• developmental disabilities [mental retardation, autism, learning disabilities, ADHD],
• parenting as related to childhood psychopathology/disabilities, deafness and language/reading disorders.

Small Business: Psychopathology and Adult Disorders [BBBP (11)] This small business study section reviews applications having to do with the following topics:

• adult psychopathology [schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders],
• disorders of aging [Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease];
• sleep and neuropsychology;
• cognitive aging, memory and driving simulation;
• co-morbid substance abuse;
• management of emotion in adults [e.g., anger and stress];
• automated analyses of animal behavior related to psychopathology, substance abuse and/or mental disorders.

Small Business study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

RPHB – Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior 
ETTN – Emerging Technologies and Training in Neuroscience  
HDM - Healthcare Delivery and Methodologies  
SBIB – Surgical Sciences, Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering  

[F12A Roster]

The F12A study section reviews fellowship applications investigating language and other types of communication and their development across the lifespan [infancy through old age], primarily in humans but research involving non-human primates may be included as well. All forms of language and communication, both normal and disordered, are considered. Also considered by the F12A fellowship study section are applications investigating cognition and perception and their development across the lifespan. including normal and disordered forms of cognition and perception. Specific topics covered include:

• Language development and origins of language/communication disorders
• Language comprehension and production
• Non-linguistic communication
• Brain-regions underlying language/communication abilities
• Perceptual and cognitive processes underlying reading and writing abilities
• Perceptual mechanisms for all sensory modalities
• Reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving
• Intelligence and aptitude
• Cognitive/perceptual mechanisms underlying behavioral and mental disorders
• Acquisition of knowledge and skills
• Planning and monitoring of actions
• Executive function

Fellowship study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:
 
Brain Disorders and Related Neuroscience [F01] 
Behavioral Neuroscience [F02A] 
Sensory, Motor, and Cognitive Neuroscience [F02B] 
Psychosocial and Developmental Processes, Personality, and Behavior [F11] 
Psychopathology, Developmental Disabilities, Stress and Aging [F12B] 

[F12B Roster]
 

The F12B study section reviews fellowship applications concerned with emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders across the lifespan. Also included are co-morbid substance use disorders, as well as their effects on children when they occur prenatally. Also reviewed are fellowship applications concerning psychopathology, developmental disabilities and disorders of aging such as: schizophrenia, mood disorders, suicide, anxiety and traumatic stress disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders personality disorders, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, traumatic brain injury and sleep disorders. Also included are fellowship applications on basic biobehavioral, psychological, social and cultural processes governing affect (emotion, mood) and stress in humans. Examples of specific areas covered are:

Fellowship study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:
 
Brain Disorders and Related Neuroscience [F01] 
Sensory, Motor, and Cognitive Neuroscience [F02B]    
Psychosocial and Developmental Processes, Personality, and Behavior [F11]    
Cognition, Language and Perception Fellowship Study Section [F12A] 
Health and Health Related Behavior of Individuals and Populations [F16]