Developmental Trajectories & Psychiatry
Scientific referents
Coordinator : Jean-Luc Martinot
Scientific leaders
Eric Artiges ; Ana-Riva Baggio-Saitovitch ; Nathalie Boddaert ; David Cohen ; Bernard Granger ; Jean-Luc Martinot ; Marie-Laure Paillere ; Christian Trichard ; Monica Zilbovicius
Key figures
4 post-doct -- 2 phd students -- 3 intership student
10 recently defended thesis
Presentation of the thematic area
How do brain, psychological, cognitive, and sensorimotor changes during adolescence predict vulnerability, or resilience, to emotional disorders and risky behaviors? To find out, this experienced research team is focusing on the multimodal characteristics of psychiatric disorders with a neurodevelopmental component. They are studying cohorts of typically developing youth, individuals at risk for depression, anxiety or addiction, or with social brain abnormalities in autistic disorders.
In this context, researchers use data fusion and mathematical modeling from large international databases of adolescents and young adults. In parallel, they are conducting longitudinal studies of patients in clinical departments in several hospitals.
Key words
Mental health; Psychiatry; Modeling; Cohorts; Adolescence; Development; MRI; Emotional disorders; Depression; Addictions.
Key facts
- The lab coordinates an international consortium targeting adolescent neurocognitive process in depression and investigating mechanisms for novel preventive interventions.
- 2021 : The team used functional neuroimaging to study the spontaneous brain activity of adult patients whose first depressive episode occurred during adolescence. Using dynamic analysis of MRI images of spontaneous brain activity, this research published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging has detected dynamic inflexibility between the limbic affective network and prefrontal cognitive networks. These results suggest that the temporal balance between these networks is a target for interventions aimed at emotional regulation.
Applications
- Prevention of risky behavior in adolescents: Mediating the transition to major depressive disorder involves circumscribed brain regions in early adolescence. The lab was the first to demonstrate brain changes in ventromedial frontal regions, the striatum and cingulate, and adjacent white matter bundles, using a longitudinal model in at-risk adolescents. In addition, he reported that these changes may have predictive value in individuals, which should support new intervention models for targeted prevention. This information highlights the vulnerability of neuro-affective systems in young adolescents and has justified the stratification of the age of protection in adolescence in a law passed by the French Parliament. These findings were also presented at a 2019 Senate hearing on adolescent protection as part of the revision of French bioethics laws.
- Adolescent Addictions: There is very little information about young people who successfully stop an addiction. The team therefore looked for brain changes associated with spontaneous cessation of poly-substance use. To do this, they studied European adolescents with questionnaires and brain MRIs over a period of 5 years. In those who spontaneously stopped their excessive use, brain changes were detected, particularly in the cingulate gyrus, a key brain region involved in the "reward circuit". In addition, measures of the cingulate gyrus had individual predictive value according to a machine learning approach. These results publiched in European Neuropsychopharmacology can contribute to new rehabilitation models for those most at risk, in synergy with other approaches.p
- Creation of an exceptional database on at-risk adolescents: The team has created the first European cohort of 2,000 adolescents followed for 10 years with foreign partners. This multidisciplinary resource is now combined with assessments of young patients.
