Multimodal and Multi-source Study of Developmental Psychopathology in Twin and Youth Cohorts: Integration of Neuroimaging, Neuropsychology and Gene-environment Measures

The developmental psychopathology aims at studying the possible paths that psychiatric conditions may take from childhood, through adolescence till early adulthood. This developmental perspective has the final goal of allowing prevention and early detection of mental illness, which in turn should translate into better prognosis and outcomes.

Longitudinal research allows a better grasp on the illness etiology as it gives the opportunity of directly investigate the possible causal mechanisms and of defining the origins of psychopathological condition in adults.

Many factors of risk interact, across neurodevelopment, in determining the person's vulnerability to mental illness. For instance, temperament and psychopathological factors were proved to have a role. However, the existing knowledge is still fragmented and should be integrated by new knowledge on genetic and environmental factors. Thus, combining observations of neurodevelopment, as measured with neuro-imaging techniques at subsequent timepoints, with psychopathological and neuropsychological evaluations, as well as with detailed information on genetic, environmental and temperamental indexes, is crucial, as no similar exhaustive investigations are still available.

Furthermore, it must be bared in mind that the gene by environment interaction generates complex epigenetic effects on neurodevelopment, which should be monitored through a longer time lapse.

This topic has been studying this topic for years, by research groups with sites in Friuli Venezia Giulia and Bosisio Parini (Lecco, Lombardia), by mean of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, involving samples of children and adolescents at risk of psychopathology and referred because of behavioral and/or emotional difficulties, experienced in the past or still ongoing. Also, the research involved a cohort of Twins recruited from the normal population and whose data would allow more fine tuned analyses of the bene by environment interaction.