Meeting Summary
Optimizing fMRI Approaches to Adolescent Mental Disorders
August 17, 2006 – August 18, 2006
Rockville, Maryland
Sponsored by:
The Division of Pediatric Translational Research and Treatment Development (DPTR) and
the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science (DNBBS)
On August 17–18, 2006, the National Institute of Mental Health sponsored a workshop that brought together researchers involved in the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study adolescent mental disorders and normal development, as well as scientists involved in integrating fMRI data with data from other imaging modalities. The goal was to address issues involved in such research toward the goal of optimizing study designs and approaches to improve our understanding of the neural bases of these disorders.
Major Themes
Listed below are some major themes and discussion points addressed during the workshop.
- Conceptual Challenges
- Adolescence as a Developmental Epoch
- fMRI Paradigms and Approaches
- Dependent fMRI measures
- Stability/reliability of fMRI activations
- Longitudinal designs
- Individual differences in fMRI activation patterns
- Performance issues
- Technological challenges for multi-site studies
- Arterial spin labeling (ASL)
- Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
- Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)
- Some useful approaches for future research
- Technology, tools, and resources — needs
