Speaker
Dr. Tonya White
Biography
Paediatric population neuroimaging lies at the interface between the disciplines of child psychiatry, radiology, paediatrics, and epidemiology. While there are certain challenges in being at the interface of four different disciplines, there are also tremendous opportunities to address specific questions that lie at this interface. My group works as a team focusing on five different research domains, including: 1.) Effects of prenatal and early life experience on downstream brain development 2.) Psychopathology along the continuum 3.) The neurobiology of emerging psychopathology 4.) Paediatric imaging genetics and 5.) Typical development and paediatric neuroimaging methodologies. I moved from the University of Minnesota in 2009 to set up a neuroimaging programme (KNICR) within the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Generation R Study. I currently direct the neuroimaging programme in the Generation R Study and via collaborative work with the departments of Radiology, Epidemiology, Bioinformatics, and Paediatrics, we have one of the largest paediatric neuroimaging cohorts in the world. The tenets for our work are that developmental and psychiatric disorders emerge within the context of brain development, yet little is known about the developmental trajectory of many of the major psychiatric disorders and their point of divergence from typical developmental trajectories. It is thus the goal of my research team to carefully map normal neurodevelopment and to map neurodevelopment of individuals with, or at high-risk for developing serious psychiatric disorders. In addition, my team explores environmental factors associated with later neurodevelopment. With nearly 7,000 active participants in the Generation R Study, it is extremely well suited to pursue these research questions.