Project Summary

Tie-Yuan Zhang, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2007) of McGill University, notes that psychiatric disorders emerge as a function of complex gene – environment interactions that most likely involve genomic variations and specific environmental events. Dr. Zhang will use an animal model based on naturally occurring variations in maternal care to define early environmental influences on gene expression, brain development and behavior focusing on the dopamine system in the prefrontal cortex. Dysfunction within this system is linked to attentional-deficit disorders and to schizophrenia. He will examine the effects of alterations in the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA system by introducing a construct that is intended to selectively down-regulate glutamic acid decarboxylase. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of these studies is that the apparent reversal of the maternal effect on dopamine responses to stress through environmental enrichment suggests stable epigenetic markings on the DNA might be reversible. If this were true, it would be the first demonstration of such a process through environment stimulation.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS\ADHD/Schizophrenia

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