This application seeks support for the acquisition and analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRI) in 1,000 adolescents from a population-based birth cohort established in England in early 1990's, namely the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Our long-term objective is to discover trajectories, from conception through childhood, that give rise to healthy vs. abnormal brain in adolescence. This objective will be achieved by combining a multimodal assessment of brain structure in adolescence with the existing prenatal and post-natal datasets acquired over the past 15 years in this cohort. The normative component of our study will be strengthened by our participation in three other MR-based developmental studies, namely the Saguenay Youth Study (SYS), the NIH-funded MR Pediatric Atlas and the EU-funded IMAGEN study (see Section B2).

Acquiring MRI data in the ALSPAC cohort, when the adolescents are between 16 and 17 years of age, will allow us to answer a number of questions within each of the following four specific aims:

Specific Aim 1: Nutrition

We will evaluate the role of nutrition during infancy and childhood on brain structure in adolescence.

Specific Aim 2: Physical Growth

We will evaluate the predictive value of pre-natal and post-natal physical growth (thriving) vis-a-vis cognitive development during childhood and brain maturity in adolescence.

Specific Aim 3: Addiction

We will examine the impact of prenatal (e.g. substance use during pregnancy) and postnatal (e.g. early menarche) factors on the offsppring addictive behaviour and its neural substrate in adolescence.

Specific Aim 4: Psychosocial Adversity

We will evaluate factors determining vulnerabilty vs. resilience to psychosocial adversity vis-a-vis psychopathology and brain structure in adolescence.