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Dr. Amanda Brown, Co-Director
Dr. Ahmet Hoke, DirectorThe core mission of the development core is to identify and support research projects that address the most urgent problems in the area of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders
Several of the funded pilot projects have been collaborations between investigators with expertise in distinct areas of neuroscience and in a few cases, interdisciplinary in nature. In one collaboration, pilot data generated helped to further the aims of the Therapeutic Core and led to preliminary data for other program project grants.
The pilot program supported studies in a variety of areas in the NeuroAIDS field including molecular and cellular neuroscience, clinical, neuroimaging and animal studies thereby taking advantage of the expertise of the faculty at Johns Hopkins. One pilot project is focused on examining the relationship between aging and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder using neuroimaging, while another aims to understand the activation of brain endothelium in HAND, both timely and emerging areas of investigation in neuroAIDS.
Through the suggestions and assistance of members of the JHU NIMH Center, pilot awardees used the valuable resources of the MACS and SHCS cohorts. The pilot grants allowed the pursuit of novel directions with a focus on the most at-risk populations under guided academic mentoring that might not otherwise have been accomplished due to lack of funds. We expect that the full impact of the Development Core on the research capacity of JHU will be realized as more recently funded projects come to fruition and mature projects continue to grow.
Reward, Attention, and HIV-related Risk in HIV+ Individuals; October 17, 2015, Neurobiology of Disease
Brian A. Anderson, Sharif I. Kronemer, Jessica J. Rilee, Ned Sacktor, Cherie L. Marvel
ABSTRACT: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often contracted through engaging in risky reward-motivated behaviors such as needle sharing and unprotected sex. Understanding the factors that make an individual more vulnerable to succumbing to the temptation to engage in these risky behaviors is important to limiting the spread of HIV. One potential source of this vulnerability concerns the degree to which an individual is able to resist paying attention to irrelevant reward information. In the present study, we examine this possible link by characterizing individual differences in value-basedattentional bias in a sample of HIV + individuals with varying histories of risk-taking behavior. Participants learned associations between experimental stimuli and monetary reward outcome. The degree of attentional bias for these reward-associated stimuli, reflected in their ability to capture attention when presented as task-irrelevant distractors, was then assessed both immediately and six months following reward learning. Value-driven attentional capture was related to substance abuse history and non-planningimpulsiveness during the time leading up to contraction of HIV as measured via self-report. These findings suggest a link between the ability to ignore reward-associated information and prior HIV-related risk-taking behavior. Additionally, particular aspects of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders were related to attentional bias, including motor deficits commonly associated with HIV-induced damage to the basal ganglia.
Read full article: Reward, attention, and HIV-related risk in HIV+ individuals
Ahmet Hoke, M.D., Ph.D. (Director)
Amanda Brown, Ph.D. (Co-Director)
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