We are pleased to announce that Stanford Psychiatry’s Weidong Cai, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, titled “Volatility and rigidity in brain states: A novel approach for understanding and predicting youth externalizing behaviors.”
Externalizing behaviors, marked by weakened impulse control and heightened sensation seeking, are prevalent across various neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. The progression of these behaviors varies widely between individuals, fluctuating over time, and is strongly predictive of academic and social functioning. Understanding the neurodevelopmental factors that influence the longitudinal changes in externalizing behaviors is critical for public health.
Clinical research has traditionally focused on averaged regional brain responses and functional connectivity across trials, often overlooking the complexity of brain dynamics. Emerging neuroimaging findings underscore that cognitive function depends not only on the brain's ability to maintain stable, task-relevant brain states (stability) but also on its capacity to disengage efficiently from non-optimal states (flexibility).
This study proposes a novel neural dynamic model that captures the volatility and rigidity of state-dependent brain dynamics in relation to externalizing behaviors. In this context, volatility refers to the brain's difficulty in sustaining a stable, optimal state during cognitive tasks, while rigidity refers to the brain's inertia to disengage from an obsolete state when task demands shift. By leveraging the large-scale, longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) dataset and employing cutting-edge single-trial and state-space models, the study team aims to characterize the volatility and rigidity of neural circuit dynamics during cognitive tasks in children, their developmental trajectories, and sex differences. Their primary focus will be on the cognitive control and reward systems where dysfunctions have been linked to externalizing symptoms.
“Externalizing symptoms are prevalent across various neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, often stemming from disruptions in the functioning brain circuits that govern cognitive control and reward processing,” says Dr. Cai. “This project will deepen our understanding of the neurocognitive factors contributing to longitudinal changes in externalizing behaviors, which is essential for early identification of externalizing traits and disruptive behaviors and guiding targeted and personalized intervention that reduce the lifelong burden of these disorders.”
Dr. Cai investigates the neurobiological basis of cognitive impairment across the lifespan, focusing on two critical populations: children with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD) and elders with neurodegenerative conditions (e.g., Parkinson’s disease). His goal is to advance our understanding of the factors contributing to cognitive impairment and translate these findings into improved diagnostic tools and precision treatment strategies.
Recent publications from Dr. Cai’s team include “Reduced temporal and spatial stability of neural activity patterns predict cognitive control deficits in children with ADHD,” published in the journal Nature Communications.
More Details
Read more details about the study at NIH RePORTER.