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Art Room Denton (dba)

To support Arts for Veterans, a mental health support program for Denton County veterans consisting of structured art classes and open studio sessions.

Teatro Dallas (dba)

To support the English-language premiere of Lirica, a play set in South Texas about youth violence in schools, with structured talk-backs on mental health facilitated by a psychologist.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

Project Summary Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe psychiatric disorder that greatly impacts affected individuals, especially in its early stages. Sleep disturbances, assessed with sleep questionnaires, are commonly reported by individuals with SCZ, and in-laboratory sleep studies have established deficits in two sleep-specific EEG oscillatory rhythms - sleep spindles (brief bursts of 12-16 Hz activity) and slow waves (large amplitude ~1 Hz oscillations) - in SCZ. However, the persistence of sleep oscillatory deficits and their presence in the natural environment of individuals with SCZ have yet to be assessed. To address these gaps, the proposed study aims to provide longitudinal, ambulatory assessments of spindle and slow wave deficits in individuals with early- course SCZ (EC-SCZ) vs. healthy control (HC) subjects using portable EEG. Recent technological advancements enable frequent data collection of sleep disturbances and clinical symptoms (e.g., with daily diary assessment) in clinical populations, including individuals with SCZ in their home environments. Recent evidence shows that poorer sleep quality predicts worsening psychotic symptoms and relapse in SCZ. In SCZ patients, sleep spindle deficits have been associated with negative symptoms, while slow wave abnormalities are more closely linked to their positive symptoms. The proposed study will collect daily digital measurements of sleep quality and clinical measures to investigate the relationships between 1) EEG measures of sleep oscillations and clinical symptoms, and 2) daily self-reported sleep quality and clinical symptoms in individuals with EC-SCZ. To achieve these goals, we will perform longitudinal ambulatory sleep EEG assessments at 2- week, 14-week, and 26-week time points in twenty-five individuals with EC-SCZ and twenty-five HC subjects, with two consecutive nights of recording per time point and Fitbit monitoring for one week before each assessment. Participants will complete sleep apnea screening, and EEG assessment will be repeated if sleep parameters deviate significantly from typical patterns established through Fitbit data. Additionally, the participants with EC-SCZ will complete daily digital self-report measures (i.e., validated, adapted versions of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI], Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale [PANSS], Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale-2 [GAD-2], and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 [PHQ-2]) for three 29-day blocks, each centered around a sleep EEG assessment; each block will be separated by four weeks of no data collection. Findings may establish the feasibility and validity of ambulatory sleep and clinical assessments in EC-SCZ and pave the way for novel, early interventions based on sleep neurophysiology.

NCCIH - National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

PROJECT SUMMARY: Rates of depression continue to rise and the mental health impact of COVID-19 has only accelerated trends. While mental health apps, specifically mindfulness apps, are not a panacea, they are popular tools that millions are turning to today for easy access, affordable, and low-stigma help. But increased reliance on mindfulness apps has not been supported by rigorous scientific evidence exemplified by few studies employing appropriate control conditions. Thus, this research is designed to focus on using 100% remote but robust methodology to assess the efficacy of mindfulness apps by applying a novel precision medicine framework. Our study first assesses the impact of the Digital Working Alliance by matching people with depression with a mindfulness app that may better support their personalized needs. We will compare those randomized to the to this matching condition to a digital placebo to better evaluate the efficacy of these mindfulness apps. For the first six weeks, participants will be asked to use the mindfulness app or digital placebo daily, and if not engaged, will receive reminders, allowing for the analysis of clinical outcomes during ideal usage patterns. For an additional six weeks, participants will be asked to use the app or digital placebo naturally, allowing for the elucidation of naturalistic usage patterns and evaluation if these usage patterns impact clinical outcomes. Across the entire study, we will capture smartphone-based digital phenotypes of behaviors (eg sleep, step, screen time), environments (eg home time, greenspace exposure), and symptoms (longitudinal ecological momentary assessment) to create personalized and predictive models of response that can be utilized to better understand factors impacting the efficacy of mindfulness apps, and in the future, better tailor apps to each person.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY Human subjects research with novel neural devices raises unique ethical issues, such as post-trial responsibilities, privacy of brain data, and atypical risks such as changes to personality. To manage the discrepancy between research practices and ethics oversight, in 2018 the NIH added a mandatory neuroethics section to a subset of neuroscience grants in addition to the standard protection of human subjects component. However, despite the unique nature of this requirement, to date there have been no systematic efforts to assess stakeholders’ experiences with and attitudes toward these mandates. This represents both a critical gap and opportunity. Without empirical research evaluating the impact of neuroethics mandates, we risk implementing ineffective requirements, lack the information needed to make useful modifications, and remain unaware of their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, given that there is no established pathway nor guidance for investigators to address neuroethics requirements, examining researchers’ experiences offers a valuable opportunity to understand how they devise neuroethics plans as well as barriers they might encounter when implementing them. The overall objective of this short-term R21 exploratory proposal is to assess the impact of mandatory NIH neuroethics guidelines on the ethical design and conduct of brain-related research and to identify effective strategies that investigators have utilized to address neuroethics in their research. This will be achieved through two complementary aims that involve interviewing researchers who have been funded through NIH grants requiring neuroethics sections (Aim 1) and surveying those who review neuroethics components of grant applications (Aim 2). This project directly addresses the broad area of RFA-MH-25-171 (“enhance integration of neuroethics and neuroscience”). The expected outcomes of this two-year exploratory R21 project are a set of multistakeholder perspectives on the impact of neuroethics mandates and recommendations for improving them, an identification of strategies that researchers have utilized to address neuroethics mandates, and a determination of areas of unmet needs regarding resources for addressing neuroethics requirements. Our findings will benefit funders, by providing insights into the impact of neuroethics requirements and recommendations for improving them; researchers, by providing a set of effective strategies that have been used to address neuroethics sections; neuroethicists, by determining areas of unmet need regarding neuroethics resources; and the public, by identifying pathways for enhancing the ethical conduct of neurotechnology research. This project is significant because it has the potential to impact the way that the ethics is integrated and assessed across BRAIN Initiative research and in other scientific endeavors.

NIH

Significance to the VA: Complications following major cancer surgery occur in over 30% of cases and have a major impact on quality of life and disease-free survival. Having two or more psychosocial risks independently confers a 3.4-fold increase in the odds of a postoperative complication. While this association has been established, it is not yet known which psychosocial risks are most associated with surgical complication and which risks are acutely modifiable. Psychosocial vulnerability in the immediate postoperative period substantially complicates care delivery. Housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors (food insecurity, mental health comorbidities, and criminal justice involvement) are not routinely screened for in surgically treatable disease. The long-term goal of this proposal is to address gaps in cancer surgery care by developing psychosocial support interventions that reduce surgical complications ultimately improve cancer survival. Innovation and Impact: Although preoperative optimization programs recognize the importance of risk stratification and potential psychosocial needs, there is limited evidence for which risk factors to target and to what degree these risks are modifiable. This study will inform the best means to identify psychosocial risks among patients undergoing cancer surgery using existing VA data and identify those factors most strongly associated with perioperative complications. We intend to use these findings in future work to then identify a broad set of intervenable psychosocial risk factors for veterans undergoing cancer surgery. Specific Aims & Methodology AIM 1. Compare detection of housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors in veterans undergoing major cancer surgery using structured data elements versus natural language processing (NLP). Using a national cohort (10,000+ per year of analysis, 2008-2022) of elective cancer surgery patients, housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors will be assessed using conventional definitions of these risks in VA structured data fields. Identification of housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors will also be performed using an internally developed NLP algorithm that incorporates a supervised machine learning algorithm. Finally, 100 discordant cases (structured vs. NLP) will be used to compare performance. AIM 2. Compare the association of postoperative complications and alternative measures of housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors in veterans undergoing major cancer surgery. We will use the enhanced cohort from Aim 1 that combines surgical outcomes data with new definitions of housing instability and other psychosocial risk factors to test for the independent association between psychosocial risk and worse outcomes after surgery. AIM 3. To tailor and pilot via expansion of an existing intervention (renamed Surgical Vulnerability Program, SVP) to mitigate the effects of perioperative psychosocial risk on postoperative complications following major cancer surgery. Informed by Aims 1 and 2, we will recruit 30 patients enriched with psychosocial risks identified by the outperforming approach and tailor an existing intervention better support these patients through the perioperative period. Care partners will be interviewed to evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and perceived utility. Pathway to Translation/Implementation: A more accurate delineation of psychosocial risks and a clear association with postoperative complications will better characterize preoperative surgical risk as well as its potential modifiability. A “better” designation of psychosocial risk will facilitate targeting social support interventions in the pre- and postoperative period that mitigate their impact on surgical outcomes. Moreover, the use of NLP algorithms to identify novel psychosocial risk factors prior to surgery will allow for high- throughput, nationwide risk stratification and opportunity to intervention.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY Tourette syndrome (TS) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, primarily characterized by the presence of motor and vocal tics, which places affected individuals at significantly heightened risk for internalizing symptoms and disorders. While comorbid internalizing symptoms have been shown to be a stronger predictor of quality of life and long-term clinical outcomes than tic severity, current behavioral interventions for TS predominantly focus on tic management and fail to comprehensively address the psychological burden of TS. Adolescence is a particularly sensitive developmental period in TS during which tic severity tends to peak and internalizing psychopathology often emerges. As such, there is an urgent clinical need to identify modifiable risk factors for internalizing psychopathology in adolescents with TS to inform interventions and improve clinical outcomes. This study aims to examine difficulties with emotion regulation (ER) and insensitive parenting behaviors as risk factors for internalizing symptoms in adolescents with TS. In this highly innovative proposal, I will collect neurophysiological and self-report data to assess adolescent implicit and explicit ER and leverage coding of behavioral observations to assess insensitive parenting behaviors from 100 families of adolescents with (n=50) and without (n=50) TS. I hypothesize that, compared to adolescents without TS, adolescents with TS will (1) display greater late positive potential amplitude, an event-related potential component derived from the electroencephalogram (EEG), indicating greater difficulty with implicit ER, and (2) self-report greater use of maladaptive ER strategies, indicating greater difficulty with explicit ER. Further, I hypothesize that parents of adolescents with TS will be observed to display greater insensitive parenting behaviors than parents of adolescents without TS. Lastly, I will test a structural equation model examining the unique contributions of difficulties with ER and insensitive parenting as latent constructs to the self-reported internalizing symptoms of adolescents with TS only. Importantly, this project addresses a critical gap in TS by revealing both how these potential risk factors may present differently in TS and how they may uniquely impact the psychological well-being of adolescents with TS, a particularly vulnerable neurodevelopmental population. By identifying the potential influences of ER and parenting behaviors on internalizing symptomology in TS, the findings of this work have the potential to inform longitudinal research and clinical interventions in TS. Throughout this predoctoral training project, I will develop valuable expertise in EEG methodology, assessment of parenting behaviors, advanced quantitative methods, and research dissemination skills. This training will position me to excel in a competitive postdoctoral research position and help launch my career as an independent clinical scientist with rigorous methods expertise.

NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse

PROJECT SUMMARY Some studies suggest that cannabis is a safer substitute for other substances, including for those with substance use disorders (SUD). Historically, sober living houses (SLHs) have been abstinence-based environments for individuals in recovery to live with others in recovery, yet mixed evidence regarding cannabis substitution along with rapidly changing laws have left SLHs in a difficult position regarding policies related to cannabis use among residents. Furthermore, few studies have examined cannabis use among specific populations of individuals with SUD or among those embarking on recovery from SUD. The proposed study, Assessing the Role of Cannabis in Sober Living Houses will address these issues via three specific aims: Aim 1 will examine how cannabis use is related to alcohol or other drug use, mental health, and recovery capital outcomes among SLH residents. Aim 2 will assess why individuals who live in SLHs use cannabis, medical cannabis use, how these are related to outcomes, and how these align with their recovery and living in an abstinence-based environment. Aim 3 will identify the range of current cannabis use policies and practices in SLHs and begin to develop an SLH policy assessment tool. This study requires the recruitment of SLHs (N=35), SLH managers, and SLH residents (N=400; 200 in recent cannabis use group, 200 in non-recent cannabis use group). Aim 1 involves following a prospective cohort of 400 residents, where exposure is defined by cannabis use in the past 30 days, and collecting data longitudinally over three time points across 12 months from both the use and non-use groups. Aim 1 analyses are all quantitative. Aim 2 is mixed methods and involves (1) quantitative analyses assessing how reasons and motivations for cannabis use are related to outcomes and (2) qualitative interviews focused on motivations for cannabis use and views regarding cannabis’ role in recovery. A focus of Aim 2 is medical cannabis use. Finally, Aim 3 involves qualitative interviews with house managers to document SLH cannabis policies. After analyses for all aims are complete, we will hold focus groups with house managers, residents, and our community advisory board to interpret findings, develop future research questions, and begin forming recommendations for dissemination to SLHs. The definition of SUD recovery is evolving, and how cannabis use might affect specific subpopulations of individuals with SUD, e.g., SLH residents, remains an open question as research on cannabis use in other populations might not apply to this population. Thus, if SLHs base policies on research from other populations, some residents might risk their recovery efforts. As more states legalize cannabis and the tension increases between proponents of abstinence and harm reduction, the question of how SLH operators should address cannabis is becoming more pressing. This project will also be the first to document cannabis use policies in SLHs, including issues and challenges faced by house managers in implementing these policies. Findings will enable service providers to develop policies that best support SLH residents and managers.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY Motor and vocal tics are defined by repetitive, uncontrollable movements or sounds and are a common feature of childhood developmental disorders. Although tics impact the lives of 1-2% of children and increase the risk for disabling neurological and psychiatric conditions later in life, tic disorder research has been hindered because of the small number of patients enrolled in research studies. To improve the lives of tic disorder patients and address this burden to public health, it is critical that we expand our research to larger populations. This proposal addresses this limitation by introducing the use of existing electronic health record data as a cost-effective way to analyze detailed patient information across the lifespan of individuals with tic disorders. We have assembled a research team that is well suited to perform these studies, including researchers and specialized clinicians with extensive experience in analyzing electronic health record data and expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of complex neurodevelopmental conditions, including tic disorders. First, we will design an algorithm to identify individuals with evidence of a tic disorder diagnosis by systematically searching for specific patient characteristics across the medical records of 3.8 million patients. We will then evaluate the performance of this algorithm using clinical expertise and a validated set of tic disorder patient records. Next, we will use information from medical records to examine whether delays in early childhood development are observed in tic disorder patients. Pediatric milestone data is collected on all children at well-care visits from birth to early childhood and includes direct reporting from parents and physicians assessing the child's ability to achieve standardized motor, social, and language skills (e.g. sitting, crawling, walking, smiling, pointing, name-recognition). This dataset provides a rare opportunity to examine whether individuals with tic disorders show developmental delays that predate the onset of tic symptoms. Lastly, we will look at whether the timing of developmental milestone attainment is associated with specific health outcomes in tic disorder patients. The deliverables from this study include cu ration of a large dataset of clinically validated tic disorder patients that will serve as a valuable resource for future investigations. Additionally, this study will provide the first systematic evaluation of developmental milestone attainment in tic disorder patients at this scale. By harnessing the power of large-scale electronic health record data, we can evaluate the clinical features underlying tic disorders across the lifespan, ultimately leading to better-informed personalized care and decreased burden on patients and their families.

NIH

Attention deficits (AD) frequently co-occur with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The presence of AD is associated with greater PTSD clinical severity and poorer clinical outcomes. Knowledge regarding the mechanism underlying this association is limited, though the emerging evidence has indicated that executive function deficit (EFD) is strongly correlated with AD and PTSD symptoms. While treatments developed for PTSD have existed for years, a substantial portion of individuals do not fully respond to conventional treatment. Accumulating evidence suggest that attention deficit (AD) and EFD may be a driving force for PTSD treatment resistance. However, treatment of executive impairment in PTSD is very limited. As a result, untreated co- occurring AD and EFD in PTSD poses severe negative impacts on patients’ functional recovery, treatment outcomes, and quality of life (QoL). Given that up to 50% of patients do not respond well to the first-line pharmacological PTSD treatments, it is imperative to seek novel treatment strategies to improve EF that may improve both standard treatment response and QoL, social function. The proposed study directly addresses this knowledge gap by testing the efficacy of atomoxetine (ATX) in improving EF and attention among Veterans with PTSD, which will further improve Veterans’ QoL and social function. ATX represents a promising novel candidate pharmacotherapy for individuals with PTSD. ATX is a non-stimulant selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), approved by the FDA for the treatment of ADHD. Studies suggest that ATX, unlike stimulants, lacks addictive properties and shows efficacy in the treatment of comorbid depression and anxiety, which is ideal in the treatment of PTSD. Data from our preliminary study provides encouraging support for the therapeutic potential of ATX in improving EF in Veterans with comorbid PTSD/ADHD. Our recent research uncovered a higher rate of ADHD among veterans with PTSD, and the comorbid AD symptoms were correlated with PTSD severity and poorer treatment outcomes. Treatment with ATX showed significant symptoms reduction in ADHD and improvement in inhibitory function in Veterans with ADHD/PTSD. In the proposed study, we will focus on ATX in improvement of EF and attention, and further psycho-social life function and QoL. We will (1) employ a randomized, double-blind design that will consist of 12 weeks of treatment with ATX or placebo medication; (2) use standardized, repeated dependent measures to rigorously assess AD and EFD symptomatology; (3) measure impairment in associated mental and behavioral health problems (e.g., attention deficit, depression, anxiety, suicidality, QoL, family/social functioning); and (4) use response inhibition task GoNogo, working memory and attention tests Digit Span and Trail Making to investigate the underlying pathophysiology of PTSD and prognostic indicators of treatment outcome. To achieve these goals, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team of investigators with expertise in PTSD, ADHD clinical trials, and human laboratory paradigms who have successfully collaborated in the past and are uniquely qualified to implement this type of investigation. The proposed project is directly responsive to the mission of the VA-RRD “to maximize Veterans’ functional independence, quality of life and participation in their lives and community.” Successful completion of this study will provide a platform for a large multi-center trial to further confirm the important role of EF in PTSD treatment outcomes. The findings from this study will provide critically needed evidence to help inform clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of PTSD. The outcome of the proposed research will be significant, because it provides a knowledge base to allow for development of new PTSD intervention strategies. More importantly, this clinical trial may immediately benefit Veterans by enhancing their cognitive function, reducing AD related disability, and further improving quality of life for veterans who suffer from PTSD.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

Project Summary/Abstract Decision making is a core cognitive process underlying myriad behaviors in day-to-day life. While great strides have been made in uncovering elements of the neural processes underlying decision making, key questions remain, especially related to the type of complex multi-attribute decisions that are common in the real world. Our novel task isolates each piece of information related to the value of options and requires subjects to view these attributes of options one at a time. Because of this design, we can monitor attention throughout and study the neural responses at each stage. This task also presents the distinct advantage of being viable for both human subjects and non-human primates. Already, we have gained key insights from recordings of neuronal activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) of macaques performing the task. We found that preSMA neurons encode action value signals that accumulate information about the options. We also discovered that the focus of attention plays a key role in the value estimation process in these neurons. Attention both uniformly enhances the activity of neurons when the option in their preferred spatial position is attended and increases the gain of value representation in these neurons. With fundamentally the same task, we have collected data from patients undergoing intracranial recordings as part of their treatment for medically intractable focal epilepsy. With broad coverage of the brain across the population of patients, we have been able to identify a number of brain regions involved in different aspects of the task. Now, we can combine the advantages of both data sets to make additional progress. First, in Aim 1, I will implement a computational model for Attention Modulated Multi- Attribute Decisions (AM-MAD) consistent with the observed activity patterns in the preSMA data. This model will allow us to test the hypothesis that the observed forms of attentional modulation of value representation serve to prevent premature choices by allowing attended options to overcome inhibition. In Aim 2, broader networks for value estimation and option selection will be identified from the human sEEG data using a set of dimensionality reduction tools. This approach should reveal whether similar attentional modulation of value representation is present in corresponding areas in humans, as well as how these factors influence activity in other areas. Finally, in Aim 3, I will use new tools that have been developed for causal inference and are ideally suited to multi- channel intracranial recordings. This will allow us to study the flow of information through large-scale networks in the brain and test whether regions that show activity changes related to specific aspects of the task are directly interacting, e.g. whether activity in premotor areas is driven by both attention- and value-encoding frontal areas. With this additional information, the AM-MAD model will be refined with more detail about value and attention- related inputs. Together, this will serve to both advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms of attention in multi-attribute decision making and establish a set of tools that will be broadly applicable for studying cognitive processes across species and recording modalities.

National Institutes of Health

<p>The <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver </i>National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (<a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/">NIDCD</a>), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (<a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/">NIEHS</a>), National Institute of Mental Health (<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml">NIMH</a>), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (<a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/">NINDS</a>), intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) to solicit applications for research that will build on the progress and momentum of the past 23 years of ACE research and that takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies and methods.</p><p>Applications are not being solicited at this time. This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.&nbsp; This NOFO will utilize the <a href="https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/ac_search_results.htm?text_curr=p50&amp;Search_Type=Activity">P50</a> - Research Program Projects and Centers&nbsp;activity code. Investigators with expertise and insights into this area of research are encouraged to begin to consider applying for this new NOFO. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in scientific disciplines will be encouraged, and these investigators should also begin considering applying for this opportunity. Grant authorities that allow the <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver </i>National Institute of Child Health and Human Development&nbsp;to forecast this opportunity are as follows: Public Health Service Act, Section 301, 448 and 487, as amended, Public Laws 78-410 and 99-158, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 241; 42 U.S.C. 285g; 42 U.S.C. 288; Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, Public Law 102-564, Public Law 118-47.</p>

National Institutes of Health

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) to solicit applications for research that will build on the progress and momentum of the past 23 years of ACE research and that takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies and methods.Applications are not being solicited at this time. This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. This NOFO will utilize the P50 - Research Program Projects and Centers activity code. Investigators with expertise and insights into this area of research are encouraged to begin to consider applying for this new NOFO. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in scientific disciplines will be encouraged, and these investigators should also begin considering applying for this opportunity. Grant authorities that allow the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to forecast this opportunity are as follows: Public Health Service Act, Section 301, 448 and 487, as amended, Public Laws 78-410 and 99-158, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 241; 42 U.S.C. 285g; 42 U.S.C. 288; Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, Public Law 102-564, Public Law 118-47.

National Institutes of Health

<p>The<i> Eunice Kennedy Shriver</i> National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (<a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/">NIDCD</a>), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (<a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/">NIEHS</a>), National Institute of Mental Health (<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml">NIMH</a>), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (<a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/">NINDS</a>), intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) Network to solicit applications for research&nbsp;that will build on the progress and momentum of the past 23 years of ACE research and that takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies and methods. &nbsp;The ACE network has used R01 funding mechanism to allow multisite collaborations since the beginning of the ACE program in 2007. &nbsp;Each ACE Network will consist of a multi-site project focusing on a specific topic of research for R01 support through this FOA. Each ACE Network will submit one R01 application that includes sub-awards to the collaborating sites.</p><p>Applications are not being solicited at this time. This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.&nbsp;This NOFO will utilize the&nbsp;R01 Research Project Grant&nbsp;activity code. Investigators with expertise and insights into this area of science are encouraged to begin to consider applying for this new NOFO. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in scientific disciplines will be encouraged, and these investigators should also begin considering applying for this application. Grant authorities that allow the <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver </i>National Institute of Child Health and Human Development&nbsp;to forecast this opportunity are as follows: Public Health Service Act, Section 301, 448 and 487, as amended, Public Laws 78-410 and 99-158, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 241; 42 U.S.C. 285g; 42 U.S.C. 288; Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, Public Law 102-564, Public Law 118-47.</p>

National Institutes of Health

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) Network to solicit applications for research that will build on the progress and momentum of the past 23 years of ACE research and that takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies and methods. The ACE network has used R01 funding mechanism to allow multisite collaborations since the beginning of the ACE program in 2007. Each ACE Network will consist of a multi-site project focusing on a specific topic of research for R01 support through this FOA. Each ACE Network will submit one R01 application that includes sub-awards to the collaborating sites.Applications are not being solicited at this time. This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. This NOFO will utilize the R01 Research Project Grant activity code. Investigators with expertise and insights into this area of science are encouraged to begin to consider applying for this new NOFO. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in scientific disciplines will be encouraged, and these investigators should also begin considering applying for this application. Grant authorities that allow the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to forecast this opportunity are as follows: Public Health Service Act, Section 301, 448 and 487, as amended, Public Laws 78-410 and 99-158, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 241; 42 U.S.C. 285g; 42 U.S.C. 288; Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992, Public Law 102-564, Public Law 118-47.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by substantial genetic and clinical heterogeneity. Although hundreds of high-confidence ASD risk genes have been identified, the underlying biology remains poorly understood and no effective therapeutics currently exist. A key limitation may be the field’s reliance on gene ontology annotations to infer gene function, which has focused attention on synaptic and transcriptional mechanisms, while potentially overlooking other relevant cellular processes. Recent functional evidence from our group and others reveals that many ASD-associated proteins, including those traditionally labeled as synaptic or chromatin regulators, also localize to and function at the primary cilium, a microtubule-based organelle essential for neurogenesis, brain patterning, and neuronal signaling. Our preliminary studies demonstrate that SYNGAP1, a well-characterized postsynaptic Ras GTPase-activating protein and one of the most common monogenic causes of ASD, localizes to cilia and is required for their formation. Furthermore, individuals with SYNGAP1 mutations exhibit reduced nasal nitric oxide, a clinical biomarker of motile cilia dysfunction, suggesting broader systemic involvement. This proposal uses SYNGAP1 as a model to test the central hypothesis that autism-associated genes play pleiotropic roles across subcellular compartments, including functionally significant roles at the cilium across cell types. In Aim 1, we will determine how SYNGAP1 gene dosage affects ciliogenesis and signaling in human neural progenitor cells, before synapses form, with downstream consequences for proliferation, differentiation, and Hedgehog pathway activation. Aim 2 will examine how SYNGAP1 localizes to and regulates local signaling through neuronal primary cilia, including the role of specific domains, isoforms, and GTPase intermediates in modulating ciliary PKA activity and how this changes over synapse maturation. In Aim 3, we will assess the impact of SYNGAP1 loss on motile cilia using human nasal brushings and Xenopus models to evaluate structural and functional consequences, as well as therapeutic entry points given the accessibility and therapeutic tractability of this tissue. This work will advance our understanding of the multifaceted roles of ASD genes and propose an expanded model of autism biology that includes ciliary dysfunction as a key mechanistic contributor. By leveraging the accessibility of airway cilia for biomarker development and therapeutic monitoring, this research offers clinically actionable insights and supports the NIMH mission to uncover the developmental origins of mental illness and improve intervention strategies.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

Project Summary Schizophrenia (SZ) involves distinct changes in brain network organization, in which disrupted oscillatory communication between brain regions is thought to contribute to a breakdown in cognitive and perceptual processes. In addition to widespread changes in central nervous system (CNS) activity, SZ involves distinct alterations in the rhythmic activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). A growing body of evidence suggests that physiological cycles such as heart rate, respiration, and heart rate variability (HRV) interact with the rhythms of the brain and may help coordinate oscillatory communication within brain networks. Whether and how ANS dysfunction in SZ mechanistically contributes to disorganized brain activity and cognition remain to be explored. SZ is characterized by prominent changes in the parasympathetic branch of the ANS, which can be indexed by the cyclical fluctuations in heart rate associated with respiration, known as high-frequency (HF) HRV. HF-HRV is robustly associated with psychological health and cognitive functioning and is consistently found to be lower in SZ. Our group recently showed that, rather than simply reflecting shared neural systems supporting physiological and psychological regulation, the associations between HF-HRV and psychological functioning may be due in part to a causal influence of cardiac autonomic rhythms on brain activity. We observed that HF-HRV oscillations modulate EEG oscillations through phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), a well-established mechanism of oscillatory organization in the brain that appears to extend to brain- body interactions. Crucially, directions of effects were stronger from heart-to-brain than brain-to-heart. We also found that HRV-EEG coupling is lower in individuals with SZ and that this deficit is associated with impaired sustained attention. Our findings suggest that dysregulated neural activity and cognitive dysfunction are due in part to disrupted body-to-brain communication in SZ. To further probe the causal mechanisms through which autonomic rhythms influence brain activity, the proposed study will examine whether increasing HF-HRV can lead to changes in oscillatory activity and cognitive functioning in patients with first-episode SZ and healthy comparison (HC) participants. Prior research shows that simply reducing respiratory rate results in immediate and sizeable increases in HF-HRV. In the proposed study, SZ and HC participants will complete a series of tasks measuring cognitive functioning before and after completing a slow-paced breathing exercise, with EEG, EKG, and respiration measured throughout. We hypothesize that increasing HF-HRV through slow-paced breathing will lead to increased HRV-EEG coupling, increased oscillatory connectivity within relevant brain networks, and cognitive improvements. We aim to clarify how autonomic rhythms influence brain activity and cognition and to bridge largely separate literatures on ANS and CNS dysfunction in SZ. Ultimately, understanding how psychological health depends on the integrated functioning of the brain and body may introduce new treatment avenues for SZ and other mental illnesses.

Department of Labor

AWARD PURPOSE THE PURPOSE OF BOOST GO IS TO PREPARE YOUNG ADULTS FOR EMPLOYMENT THROUGH EDUCATION AND TRAINING, PAID WORK EXPERIENCES, MENTORSHIP, AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WITH DELIVERY OF EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES INTERVENTIONS. ACTIVITIES PERFORMED BOOST GO WILL SUPPORT JUSTICE INVOLVED YOUNG ADULTS FOR EMPLOYMENT AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION BY 1. HELPING YOUNG ADULTS TO INCREASE THEIR CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS AND DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO PREVENT AND AVOID VIOLENCE. THIS WILL BE ACHIEVED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SKY RANCH BEHAVIORAL SERVICES TO PROVIDE VIOLENCE PREVENTION, MENTORING, AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT THROUGH DELIVERY OF EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTIONS OF AGGRESSION REPLACEMENT TRAINING® ART) AND MENTORS IN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (MVP) CURRICULUM DESIGNED BY UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CENTER FOR VIOLENCE PREVENTION (CVP). PARTNERS WILL COLLABORATE TO RECRUIT AND TRAIN MULTICULTURAL MENTORS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE. 2. PREPARING YOUNG ADULTS FOR THE WORLD OF WORK BY HELPING YOUNG ADULTS IDENTIFY CAREER INTERESTS, ATTAIN RELEVANT SKILLS, AND GAIN WORK EXPERIENCE. BOOST GO WILL ENSURE PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT AND CAREER SERVICES UTILIZING STEP ON UP® CAREER READINESS AND GROWTH FOCUSED CASE MANAGEMENT (GFCM), RESULTING IN A CUSTOMIZED INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP). PARTICIPANTS WILL GAIN WORK EXPERIENCE IN EMPLOYMENT, APPRENTICESHIP, INTERNSHIP; AND/OR ON-THE-JOB TRAINING WITH HIGH PRIORITY EMPLOYER PARTNERS HIGH DEMAND CAREERS, BASED ON CURRENT LABOR MARKET INFORMATION (LMI) AND IOWA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TO INCLUDE CHILDCARE, CONSTRUCTION, FOOD/MEAT PROCESSING, HEALTH CARE, MAINTENANCE/ SAFETY, COMMERCIAL TRUCKING, WAREHOUSE LOGISTICS/OPERATIONS, AND WELDING. WRAPAROUND SERVICES TO ADDRESS HOUSING, MENTAL HEALTH, ADDICTION, CHILDCARE, LEGAL SERVICES, WILL BE CUSTOMIZED TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. DELIVERABLES OUTCOMES WILL EXCEED ALL REQUIRED PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES TO INCLUDE A 73% EMPLOYMENT RATE- SECOND QUARTER AFTER EXIT, 65% EMPLOYMENT RATE- FOURTH QUARTER AFTER EXIT, 6,000 MEDIAN EARNINGS, 60% CREDENTIAL ATTAINMENT, 73% MEASURABLE SKILL GAIN, LESS THAN 3% ARRESTS FOR VIOLENT CRIMES, AND LESS THAN AN 8% RECIDIVISM RATE. INTENDED BENEFICIARY BOOST GO WILL REACH AND SERVE 180 YOUNG ADULTS 18-24 YEARS OLD MOST IMPACTED BY POVERTY AND CRIME, WITH PRIORITY ON REACHING MINORITY COMMUNITIES IN THE CENSUS TRACTS. SUBRECIPIENT ACTIVITIES N/A

NIDCD - National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

PAR-24-246 Application 2002755 Project Summary Cognixion proposes a groundbreaking project focused on developing and validating the Cognixion Axon-R, a wearable augmented reality (AR) and brain-computer interface (BCI) device combined with Cognixion’s Assisted Reality generative AI application software. This system is designed to restore communication abilities for individuals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and related neurodegenerative conditions. As this disease progress, traditional communication tools, such as eye-tracking systems, become less effective, leaving patients isolated and unable to express their needs. The Cognixion solution addresses this critical gap by combining AR, BCI, and AI-supported speech generation to enable communication through neural signals, even when voluntary motor control is nonexistent. The proposed project is a direct to Phase 2 SBIR building on existing feasibility research that will be complete in Dec. 2025. The Phase 1 equivalent IRB approved device feasibility study has demonstrated, in a longitudinal setting, the efficacy of the AR-BCI-AI combination technologies. The proposed Phase 2 clinical study will similarly utilize a longitudinal experiment design. Each study participant will be provided with three communication solutions: letterboard (control), the AR-BCI device and a low encumbrance BCI-tablet configuration. The study will systematically evaluate the usability, feasibility, and utility of two candidate device configurations which both feature three input modalities: eye tracking, hybrid eye tracking/BCI, and pure BCI. This research is essential to finalize the product requirements and design in preparation for a pivotal study and FDA clearance. The anticipated outcomes of this research include demonstrating the effectiveness of the Cognixion ONE device in restoring communication for individuals with severe communication impairments, improving their quality of life, and potentially enhancing mental health. The project aligns with Cognixion’s mission to create transformative assistive technologies that empower individuals with disabilities. If successful, this device will have significant commercial applications in healthcare and home care settings, while also providing profound societal and scientific benefits by setting a new standard for communication aids in neurodegenerative conditions.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

Project Summary To survive in dynamic environments animals must choose appropriate actions to pursue rewards and avoid threats. While foraging, successful animals will leverage their past experiences to select, moment to moment, the action most likely to maximize reward while minimizing risk. This fundamental process of “action selection” is believed to require basal ganglia (BG) circuits in all vertebrates. Influencing the process of action selection, midbrain dopamine neurons (mDAs) project to the BG. Canonically, a primary function of nucleus accumbens projecting mDAs is to reinforce previously performed actions that have resulted in positive outcomes and discourage those that resulted in negative outcomes. As such, mDAs are crucial for learning action values and controlling adaptive behavior. Recently, DA released in the posterior “tail” of the striatum (TS) has been shown to exhibit wholly different responses to environmental stimuli. DA release in TS shows little or no change to reward, but instead increases in response to highly salient and/or threatening stimuli. It is now clear that different striatal subregions are innervated by distinct populations of mDA neurons which may imbue different plasticity and behavioral functions to BG subcircuits, for example reward vs threat learning. In preliminary studies, we have found a unique population of entopeduncular neurons (EPSst+) lie directly downstream of the TS. These neurons are peculiar in that cotransmit both GABA and glutamate and project directly to the lateral habenula (LHb) a region important for learning and predicting aversive stimuli. We hypothesize that the specialized circuitry linking TS, EP, and LHb is critical for rapid behavioral adaptation following aversive stimuli. We will test circuit function using a task that requires an animal to suppress its escape response to a threatening stimulus to obtain a reward. These studies will reveal new BG circuit architectures that are required for an animal to appropriately respond in a dynamic environment with changing costs and benefits of its actions.

Indian Health Service

<p>The purpose of the BH2I program is to improve the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals by expanding integrated, coordinated behavioral health care. The program supports Tribal and Urban Indian Organization (UIO) health systems in delivering culturally responsive, trauma-informed services that integrate behavioral health with primary care, nutrition, exercise, and social, spiritual, and cultural supports. The goal is to improve access to comprehensive behavioral health services, promote early identification and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, strengthen care coordination, and improve overall health outcomes and quality of life.</p>

Indian Health Service

The purpose of the BH2I program is to improve the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals by expanding integrated, coordinated behavioral health care. The program supports Tribal and Urban Indian Organization (UIO) health systems in delivering culturally responsive, trauma-informed services that integrate behavioral health with primary care, nutrition, exercise, and social, spiritual, and cultural supports. The goal is to improve access to comprehensive behavioral health services, promote early identification and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, strengthen care coordination, and improve overall health outcomes and quality of life.

NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health

PROJECT SUMMARY At least half of autistic adults report a history of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), or intentional destruction of one’s own body tissue without suicidal intent. This is concerning as NSSI has a strong link with suicide attempts in general and autistic samples. Despite this precedence and the increasing spotlight on suicidal thoughts in autism, there is limited research which explicitly examines NSSI in autism. Considering the precursory role NSSI has on suicide attempts, there is a critical gap in our understanding of NSSI in autism. In the limited work, there is evidence to suggest that compulsivity, the tendency to engage in repetitive, often maladaptive, thoughts or actions, which is characterized by reduced goal-directed behavior, may be linked to NSSI. The current proposal seeks to address this gap by integrating self-report, clinical interviews, fMRI task, and longitudinal data collection to examine behavioral and neural markers of compulsivity with NSSI, and trajectories of NSSI in of autistic adults ages 18-45 years (N=90, 50% oversampled for recent NSSI in the past 4-months). The central hypothesis of this proposal is that behavioral and neural markers of compulsivity during decision-making relates to NSSI, including a persistent trajectory of NSSI. Characterizing NSSI associations with behavioral markers of compulsivity (Aim 1), and neural markers of compulsivity (Aim 2), and identification of NSSI trajectories (Aim 3) in autistic adults has the potential to aid in targeted NSSI prevention and intervention programs for autism. This project will be the first in a larger program of research that is aligned with RDoC, and will contribute to NIMH’s Strategic Priorities 1.3 (“Identify and characterize neural circuit mechanisms contributing to human behavior and their disruption in mental illness”), 2.1 (“Characterize the trajectories of [..] behavioral development across the lifespan), and 2.2 (“Identify and understand risk factors, biomarkers, and behavioral indicators of mental illnesses [..] across the lifespan”), and with the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Plan 2.2 (“to understand the underlying biology of co-occurring conditions in autism [..]”) and 6.2 (“improve [..] mental health outcomes across the lifespan, with the goal of improving safety, reducing premature mortality [..]). This application details a comprehensive research and training plan which allows the candidate to address these questions and develop the skills necessary to become an independent investigator. Specifically, this candidate will receive training in 1) NSSI and by proxy suicidality; 2) behavioral and neural markers of compulsivity; and 3) longitudinal methodology and analysis. Training will occur within the rich scientific environment offered through the University of Pittsburgh and with the support of an exceptional mentoring team (Mazefsky, Scott, Price, and Brown) and expert statistical consultant (Yu) who together possess a strong track record of training early career scientists and supporting their transition into highly successful independent investigators. The proposed K23 activities will lead the candidate to establish a successful and independent program of research focused on using translational neuroscience approaches to identify and target neurobehavioral compulsivity as it relates to NSSI in autism.

Bell Canada

Bell Let's Talk has committed $155M to mental health initiatives. The Community Fund provides grants for local mental health programs across Canada.