Project Description
Students will be involved in a large NIH funded project, the PATT study (Pediatric Acute Trauma Trajectories) in my laboratory. The goal of the PATT study is to identify neurobiological and socioenvironmental predictors of risk for chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among youth victims of violence. We recruit participants from the Emergency Department at Children's Wisconsin and then conduct an intensive assessment two weeks following the assault. This assessment includes structural and functional brain imaging, behavioral assessments of fear responding and fear regulation, tests of cognitive function, saliva samples for multiple biospecimens, and self-report measures of a wide variety of constructs. We then follow these acute youth traumatic assault survivors for up to a year to determine whether, neural, behavioral, and other measures of emotion regulation and cognitive functioning assessed within two weeks of a trauma predict chronic PTSD and depression.
Tasks and Responsibilites
This is a very demanding study requiring the ability to multitask, manage many different modalities of data collection, work with many different partners in a hospital setting, and most importantly collect data from youth and their parent at a very sensitive time following an assault. The assessment is five hours which can be quite taxing and will require the data collectors to be very attentive and build good rapport. The assessment is complex and problem solving skills and attention to detail are essential. Also, the nature of the sample requires excellent interpersonal skills. The student will learn to collect neuroimaging data, saliva samples, and tasks assessing cognition.
Desired Qualifications
None listed.