Our overarching mission is to study emotion and cognition in children and adolescents in order to find innovative treatments that offer the best quality of life. We want to:

• Unravel the domains of brain function underlying emotion and cognition in children and adolescents
• Define the interface of biology and environment that shapes brain and behavior in illness and wellness in developing children
• Develop innovative early intervention and prevention methods that ultimately offer personalized care for children and their families

IMPORTANCE
Children with mental health issues such as bipolar disorder, depression, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or autism do not have the knowledge or the voice to fend for themselves. They are rejected, considered intrusive or unworthy of being friends with, shunned by peers, not accommodated by teachers and often struggle to find their place in the daily life, turning to suicide or drugs as they get older. Families are equally devastated. We need to find why these mental health problems occur, how do emotional and cognitive problems become a barrier to school and social function. And more importantly, we want to find what would help these children and teens. These are not caused by parents, and are brain disorders, but none the less, impact families. This is a nature-nurture paradigm that needs to be addressed.

We use innovative functional neuroimaging, diffusion tensor imaging, genetic and cellular genomic methods to understand brain function and find novel psychopharmacological, cognitive and psychotherapeutic models of intervention.