The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $227,767 Project Grant (CFDA 93.242 - Mental Health Research Grants) to Carnegie Mellon University to develop machine learning (ML) techniques to accelerate the discovery of scalable, interpretable, and personalized preventative interventions for perinatal depression. The project aims to bridge prediction with adaptive experimentation to identify personalized interventions, incorporating domain expertise from clinicians and lived...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants (CFDA 93.242) program, funds a comprehensive research study to chart trajectories of positive valence system (PVS) function in young children of mothers with depression. The $801,869 award aims to identify key risk and protective factors that impact PVS development and its relation to early childhood internalizing symptoms in this high-risk population. The 5-year study utilizes...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), aims to investigate the relationship between postpartum depression (PPD) and the microRNA (miRNA) expression patterns of neuron-derived exosomes (NDEs). The total funding amount is $246,306, with an award date of March 17, 2025, and a targeted completion date of February 28, 2027. The key objectives of this research are to 1) characterize miRNA patterns...
This $792,441 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) will fund a study investigating the dynamic neural and physiological stress responses of female adolescents at high and low familial risk for depression. The study aims to track changes in default mode network and central executive network connectivity, along with psychophysiological markers like heart rate, heart rate variability, skin...
This $790,712 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants (CFDA 93.242) program aims to use a randomized trial to experimentally test whether maternal encouragement of child positive emotion leads to increases in child neural reward response. The University of Pittsburgh will conduct this research, which involves randomizing 180 mothers with depression symptoms and their 4-6 year old children to receive either control sessions...
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded a $2,278,274 Project Grant (CFDA 93.242) to Vanderbilt University to conduct a longitudinal investigation of neuroplasticity during pregnancy using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The 5-year study, starting on June 17, 2024, aims to characterize changes in brain structure and function across pregnancy, investigate the underlying hormonal changes, and examine the potential functional consequences of these brain changes, including...
This federal Project Grant award of $418,178 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865), aims to provide mechanistic insights into the neurobiological mechanisms by which maternal sensitivity is compromised by postpartum depression. Specifically, the University of Massachusetts (UMass), through its Office of Grant & Contract Administration, will use intersectional viral...
This Project Grant award of $103,302 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (CFDA 47.075 - Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences) supports collaborative research at Marquette University aimed at understanding disparities in emotional resilience and mental health among mothers and their children facing high psychological, social, and cultural stress. The 3-year project will leverage an existing birth cohort study to examine how maternal...
This Project Grant award of $176,638 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) supports research to investigate how the unpredictability of parent socio-emotional signals during infancy impacts the development of emotion regulation and brain function in early childhood. The research aims to uncover the mechanisms by which early caregiving shapes the neurodevelopmental processes underlying mental health risks. Specifically,...
This $392,500 federal Project Grant award was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to the University of California, Irvine. The grant supports a 5-year research project from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2029 to study the developmental origins of mental illness, with a focus on understanding how early life adversity impacts the structure and function of the hypothalamus and its contribution to maladaptive...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) supports research to investigate biobehavioral markers of prenatal resilience associated with positive postpartum maternal mental health and well-being. The $175,647 award to the University of Pittsburgh will fund a 5-year study to examine how positive childhood experiences and prenatal physiological and psychological resilience factors can predict early postpartum mental health and well-being in pregnant individuals who have experienced chronic stress. The research will utilize wearable cardiovascular monitoring, self-reported measures, and machine learning techniques to extract multimodal data and test mediation models. This work aims to identify promotive factors that can inform the development of peripartum mental health interventions.