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Charles A. Nelson, III, Ph.D.

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Mentoring
Available: 05/03/17, Expires: 04/30/22

An important function of the brain is to scan incoming sensory information for the presence of biologically relevant features and process and act on this information. For humans, the most salient signals of emotion are often social in nature, such as expressions of fear or anger. The goal of the current competing renewal is to study the nature and neural architecture of emotion processing across the first three years of life. Five-, seven-, and twelve-month-old infants, as well as three-year-old typically developing children will serve as participants across 5 specific aims. Aim 1 seeks to examine the neural correlates of the infant's ability to process emotion in both faces and non-face stimuli. Aim 2 examines a similar question, except that autonomic activity (skin conductance and pupil diameter) will be recorded in conjunction with functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Aim 3 seeks to elucidate the neural networks involved in emotion processing, and will do so by using state-of-the-art signal processing software to extract theta activity from the ongoing EEG. Aim 4 will focus on individual differences in emotion processing viewed through the lens of genetics; specifically, all infants serving as participants in Aims 1 and 2 will be genotyped, with most attention focused on 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with an additional 5 SNPs serving as a secondary aim. All SNPs have been shown to be relevant to emotion processing in both humans and non-human species. Finally, in Aim 5 we examine whether early biases in emotion processing (i.e., whether infants show greater visual or neural activity to one emotion vs. another; e.g., fear) predict (or are associated with) behavioral inhibition and anxiety. Although the current project focuses on typically developing children, this work has enormous implications for children and adults who suffer from deficits in social-emotional communication. First, this work seeks to explicate the ontogeny of facial emotion processing, an ability that likely provides a foundation upon which higher-level social communication builds. As a result, it may well be the case that errors in this ability that occur early in development can develop into more insidious deficits that occur later in development. Second, the approach adopted in this project is highly innovative, and can easily be extended to various clinical populations, such as toddlers with autism or children diagnosed with depression or bipolar illness. Areas of potential involvement for medical students:• They could participate in data collection or other existing part of the study • They could use the data to address a new research question

Exploring Policy Implications of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Summer, 06/12/13 - 08/16/13
Effects of Institutionalized Care on Social and Academic Acclimation
Summer, 06/14/13 - 08/09/13
Perinatal Factors in Long Term Developmental Outcomes
International, 08/05/13 - 09/29/13
Aggressive Behavior in Romanian Children
Summer, 06/25/13 - 08/05/13
Effects of perinatal factors on long term developmental outcomes in children the Bucharest Early Interventional Project, Romania
International/Summer, 08/01/13 - 09/28/13
Evaluating Foster Parents' Experiences in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP)
Summer, 06/20/14 - 08/29/14
Investigation of the Reasons for Child Abandonment in Romania within the context of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project
International, 06/15/08 - 08/10/08
The use of event related potentials as a possible marker for the development of autism spectrum disorders.
Summer, 06/18/06 - 08/11/06
Memory and executive function in children with a history of early institutionalization
Full Time, 07/01/08 - 06/30/09

Research
The research activities and funding listed below are automatically derived from NIH ExPORTER and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing items. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
  1. U24DA055325 (CHAMBERS, CHRISTINA ;NELSON, CHARLES ALEXANDER) Sep 30, 2021 - Jun 30, 2026
    NIH
    The Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium Administrative Core
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator
  2. R34DA050289 (NELSON, CHARLES ALEXANDER) Sep 30, 2019 - Mar 31, 2022
    NIH
    4/5 The Cumulative Risk of Substance Exposure and Early Life Adversity on Child Health Development and Outcomes
    Role: Principal Investigator
  3. T32MH112510 (GLAHN, DAVID C;NELSON, CHARLES ALEXANDER ;SAHIN, MUSTAFA) Jul 1, 2017 - Jun 30, 2027
    NIH
    Translational Post-doctoral Training in Neurodevelopment
    Role: Principal Investigator
  4. U19MH108206 (MCPARTLAND, JAMES CHARLES) Jul 1, 2015 - Jun 30, 2019
    NIH/NIMH
    The Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator
  5. R01MH091363 (FOX, NATHAN A ;NELSON, CHARLES ALEXANDER;ZEANAH, CHARLES HENRY) Aug 1, 2010 - May 31, 2024
    NIH
    The Effects of Early Psychosocial Deprivation on Mental Health in Early Adulthood
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Bibliographic
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Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.