Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Between 40 - 70% of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as autism, ADHD and specific learning disorder experience complex emotional problems. Few accessible treatment options are available and current approaches are limited by their focus on one diagnostic category despite frequent overlap of symptoms across disorders; currently over a third of children with NDDs are non-responsive to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Emotion regulation - a child's ability to appropriately adapt the intensity of their behaviour - may play a critical role as a moderator of treatment efficacy, modulating symptom expression across a range of emotional difficulties and diagnoses. Additionally, research has identified shared brain-based impairments between groups of children with autism and ADHD, but not OCD, suggesting that these impairments may be common across only the first two disorders. Currently, no research exists using advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate common neural targets for emotion regulation and treatment-based change in children with NDDs. Further, females are severely underrepresented in clinical pediatric neuroimaging research, limiting the generalizability of current findings. This study has three aims: First, using diffusion spectrum imaging, to identify shared neural biomarkers predicting response to emotion-focused CBT for children with NDDs. Second, to examine the relationship between parent and child-reported emotion regulation and transdiagnostic biomarkers of treatment change; and third, to evaluate findings according to a biological sex and gender-based lens. Greater understanding of the biomarkers related to emotion regulation and treatment responsiveness is critical to ensure a greater number of youth with NDDs are able to access quality care that effectively meets their needs; ultimately, results of this study have the potential to reduce the significant relational and economic costs associated with ineffective treatment.