Avshalom Caspi

Last updated
Avshalom Caspi
Born (1960-05-05) May 5, 1960 (age 64)
Jerusalem, Israel
NationalityAmerican
Education University of California at Santa Cruz
Cornell University
Known for Self-control
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study
Spouse Terrie Moffitt
Awards(with Terrie Moffitt) 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology
Scientific career
Fields Psychology
Institutions Duke University
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London
Thesis Moving against and moving away: life-course patterns of explosive and withdrawn children  (1986)

Avshalom Caspi (born May 5, 1960) is an Israeli-American psychologist. He is the Edward M. Arnett Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University and Professor of Personality Development at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. His research has focused on mental health and human development, much of which was conducted with his wife and longtime research partner, Terrie Moffitt. [1] He is a co-editor of the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology .

Contents

Education

Caspi graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in psychology in 1981. He received his M.A. in 1983 and Ph.D. in 1986 in developmental psychology from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. [2] His doctoral dissertation was titled "Moving Against and Moving Away: Life-course Patterns of Explosive and Withdrawn Children". [3]

Research

Caspi and Moffitt first met when they presented adjacent posters at a 1987 conference in St. Louis, Missouri on "Deviant Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood". [4] [5] He and Moffitt have collaborated on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study since the 1980s. [4]

Among Caspi's discoveries was that of an association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and clinical depression. This discovery, originally reported in a 2003 study, spurred a wave of subsequent research on the potential genetic roots of various psychiatric conditions. [6] However, a 2017 meta-analysis did not support the original finding, [7] nor did a large analysis with nearly 100% power to detect the original finding. [8] As a result, the general approach of candidate gene or candidate gene by environment interaction research in single small studies is no longer widely accepted. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Another of Caspi's studies concerns the monoamine oxidase A gene variation and the risk of antisocial behavior in the presence of childhood abuse as a study of gene and environment interaction, which was supported by some follow up studies and not by others. [12]

Honors and awards

Caspi is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the British Academy. [1] [13] He and Moffitt were co-recipients of the 2010 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize and Best Practice Award from the Jacobs Foundation, [1] and the 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology. [14] In 2013 Caspi was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. [15] In November 2022 Caspi was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi's Rutherford Medal, along with the Dunedin Study team leader Richie Poulton and team members Murray Thomson and Moffitt. [16] As of 2024, he became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology . [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causes of mental disorders</span> Etiology of psychopathology

A mental disorder is an impairment of the mind disrupting normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, or social interactions, and accompanied by significant distress or dysfunction. The causes of mental disorders are very complex and vary depending on the particular disorder and the individual. Although the causes of most mental disorders are not fully understood, researchers have identified a variety of biological, psychological, and environmental factors that can contribute to the development or progression of mental disorders. Most mental disorders result in a combination of several different factors rather than just a single factor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conduct disorder</span> Developmental disorder

Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that includes theft, lies, physical violence that may lead to destruction, and reckless breaking of rules, in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviors are often referred to as "antisocial behaviors", and is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder; however, the latter, by definition, cannot be diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. Conduct disorder may result from parental rejection and neglect and can be treated with family therapy, as well as behavioral modifications and pharmacotherapy. Conduct disorder is estimated to affect 51.1 million people globally as of 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serotonin transporter</span> Mammalian protein found in humans

The serotonin transporter also known as the sodium-dependent serotonin transporter and solute carrier family 6 member 4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC6A4 gene. SERT is a type of monoamine transporter protein that transports the neurotransmitter serotonin from the synaptic cleft back to the presynaptic neuron, in a process known as serotonin reuptake.

Schizotypal personality disorder, also known as schizotypal disorder, is a cluster A personality disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes the disorder specifically as a personality disorder characterized by thought disorder, paranoia, a characteristic form of social anxiety, derealization, transient psychosis, and unconventional beliefs.

The candidate gene approach to conducting genetic association studies focuses on associations between genetic variation within pre-specified genes of interest, and phenotypes or disease states. This is in contrast to genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which is a hypothesis-free approach that scans the entire genome for associations between common genetic variants and traits of interest. Candidate genes are most often selected for study based on a priori knowledge of the gene's biological functional impact on the trait or disease in question. The rationale behind focusing on allelic variation in specific, biologically relevant regions of the genome is that certain alleles within a gene may directly impact the function of the gene in question and lead to variation in the phenotype or disease state being investigated. This approach often uses the case-control study design to try to answer the question, "Is one allele of a candidate gene more frequently seen in subjects with the disease than in subjects without the disease?" Candidate genes hypothesized to be associated with complex traits have generally not been replicated by subsequent GWASs or highly powered replication attempts. The failure of candidate gene studies to shed light on the specific genes underlying such traits has been ascribed to insufficient statistical power, low prior probability that scientists can correctly guess a specific allele within a specific gene that is related to a trait, poor methodological practices, and data dredging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beck's cognitive triad</span> Three key elements of depression

Beck's cognitive triad, also known as the negative triad, is a cognitive-therapeutic view of the three key elements of a person's belief system present in depression. It was proposed by Aaron Beck in 1967. The triad forms part of his cognitive theory of depression and the concept is used as part of CBT, particularly in Beck's "Treatment of Negative Automatic Thoughts" (TNAT) approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene–environment interaction</span> Response to the same environmental variation differently by different genotypes

Gene–environment interaction is when two different genotypes respond to environmental variation in different ways. A norm of reaction is a graph that shows the relationship between genes and environmental factors when phenotypic differences are continuous. They can help illustrate GxE interactions. When the norm of reaction is not parallel, as shown in the figure below, there is a gene by environment interaction. This indicates that each genotype responds to environmental variation in a different way. Environmental variation can be physical, chemical, biological, behavior patterns or life events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monoamine oxidase A</span> Endogenous enzyme

Monoamine oxidase A, also known as MAO-A, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAOA gene. This gene is one of two neighboring gene family members that encode mitochondrial enzymes which catalyze the oxidative deamination of amines, such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. A mutation of this gene results in Brunner syndrome. This gene has also been associated with a variety of other psychiatric disorders, including antisocial behavior. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding multiple isoforms have been observed.

The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is a detailed study of human health, development and behaviour. Based at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Dunedin Study has followed the lives of 1037 babies born between 1 April 1972 and 31 March 1973 at Dunedin's former Queen Mary Maternity Centre since their birth. Teams of national and international collaborators work on the Dunedin Study, including a team at Duke University in the United States. The research is constantly evolving to encompass research made possible by new technology and seeks to answer questions about how people's early years have an impact on mental and physical health as they age.

In genetic epidemiology, endophenotype is a term used to separate behavioral symptoms into more stable phenotypes with a clear genetic connection. By seeing the EP notion as a special case of a larger collection of multivariate genetic models, which may be fitted using currently accessible methodology, it is possible to maximize its valuable potential lessons for etiological study in psychiatric disorders. The concept was coined by Bernard John and Kenneth R. Lewis in a 1966 paper attempting to explain the geographic distribution of grasshoppers. They claimed that the particular geographic distribution could not be explained by the obvious and external "exophenotype" of the grasshoppers, but instead must be explained by their microscopic and internal "endophenotype". The endophenotype idea represents the influence of two important conceptual currents in biology and psychology research. An adequate technology would be required to perceive the endophenotype, which represents an unobservable latent entity that cannot be directly observed with the unaided naked eye. In the investigation of anxiety and affective disorders, the endophenotype idea has gained popularity.

5-HTTLPR is a degenerate repeat polymorphic region in SLC6A4, the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter. Since the polymorphism was identified in the middle of the 1990s, it has been extensively investigated, e.g., in connection with neuropsychiatric disorders. A 2006 scientific article stated that "over 300 behavioral, psychiatric, pharmacogenetic and other medical genetics papers" had analyzed the polymorphism. While often discussed as an example of gene-environment interaction, this contention is contested.

The biology of depression is the attempt to identify a biochemical origin of depression, as opposed to theories that emphasize psychological or situational causes.

Cultural neuroscience is a field of research that focuses on the interrelation between a human's cultural environment and neurobiological systems. The field particularly incorporates ideas and perspectives from related domains like anthropology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience to study sociocultural influences on human behaviors. Such impacts on behavior are often measured using various neuroimaging methods, through which cross-cultural variability in neural activity can be examined.

Terrie Edith Moffitt is an American-British clinical psychologist who is best known for her pioneering research on the development of antisocial behavior and for her collaboration with colleague and partner Avshalom Caspi in research on gene-environment interactions in mental disorders.

Barbara Maughan is a Professor of Developmental Epidemiology at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on mental health problems in children and adolescents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richie Poulton</span> New Zealand psychologist (1962–2023)

Richie Graham Poulton was a New Zealand psychologist and the director of the University of Otago's Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Research Unit, which runs the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. He was also a professor of psychology at the University of Otago, the 2007 founder and co-director of the National Centre for Lifecourse Research, the founder in 2011 of the Graduate Longitudinal Study, New Zealand, and the chief science adviser of the Ministry of Social Development in the New Zealand government.

Matthew C. Keller is an American behavioral and psychiatric geneticist. He is the Director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics and a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is known for his criticism of the candidate gene approach and for development of approaches in quantitative genetics.

Louise Arseneault is a Canadian psychologist and Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, where she has taught since 2001.

Gene-environment interplay describes how genes and environments work together to produce a phenotype, or observable trait. Many human traits are influenced by gene-environment interplay. It is a key component in understanding how genes and the environment come together to impact human development. Examples of gene-environment interplay include gene-environment interaction and gene-environment correlation. Another type of gene-environment interplay is epigenetics, which is the study of how environmental factors can affect gene expression without altering DNA sequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candice Odgers</span> Canadian psychologist

Candice Lynn Odgers is a Canadian developmental and quantitative psychologist who studies how early adversity and exposure to poverty influences adolescent mental health. Her team has developed new approaches for studying health and development using mobile devices and online tools, with a focus on how digital tools and spaces can be improved to support children and adolescents. Odgers is currently a professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine and a research professor at Duke University. Odgers is also the co-director of the Child and Brain Development Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Husband and Wife Team Trace the Roots of Youth Violence". APS Observer. February 10, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Biosketch" (PDF). Caspi Biosketch 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Dissertation". MProquest. Retrieved June 2, 2021– via ProQuest.
  4. 1 2 Starr, Douglas (January 30, 2018). "Two psychologists followed 1000 New Zealanders for decades. Here's what they found about how childhood shapes later life". Science. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ Green, Penelope (October 3, 2012). "One Shed Fits All: A Modernist Dogtrot Reborn". The New York Times. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ Hamilton, Anita (June 17, 2009). "Study: 'Depression Gene' Doesn't Predict the Blues". Time. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  7. ↑ Culverhouse, R. C.; Saccone, N. L.; Horton, A. C.; Ma, Y.; Anstey, K. J.; Banaschewski, T.; Burmeister, M.; Cohen-Woods, S.; Etain, B. (April 4, 2017). "Collaborative meta-analysis finds no evidence of a strong interaction between stress and 5-HTTLPR genotype contributing to the development of depression". Molecular Psychiatry. 23 (1): 133–142. doi:10.1038/mp.2017.44. PMC   5628077 . PMID   28373689.
  8. 1 2 Border, Richard; Johnson, Emma C.; Evans, Luke M.; Smolen, Andrew; Berley, Noah; Sullivan, Patrick F.; Keller, Matthew C. (May 2019). "No Support for Historical Candidate Gene or Candidate Gene-by-Interaction Hypotheses for Major Depression Across Multiple Large Samples". American Journal of Psychiatry. 176 (5): 376–387. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18070881. PMC   6548317 . PMID   30845820.
  9. ↑ Duncan LE, Keller MC (October 2011). "A critical review of the first 10 years of candidate gene-by-environment interaction research in psychiatry". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 168 (10): 1041–9. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11020191. PMC   3222234 . PMID   21890791.
  10. ↑ Hewitt, John K. (2011). "Editorial Policy on Candidate Gene Association and Candidate Gene-by-Environment Interaction Studies of Complex Traits". Behavior Genetics. 42 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1007/s10519-011-9504-z. PMID   21928046. S2CID   11492871.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Emma C.; Border, Richard; Melroy-Greif, Whitney E.; de Leeuw, Christiaan A.; Ehringer, Marissa A.; Keller, Matthew C. (2017). "No Evidence That Schizophrenia Candidate Genes Are More Associated With Schizophrenia Than Noncandidate Genes". Biological Psychiatry. 82 (10): 702–708. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.06.033. PMC   5643230 . PMID   28823710.
  12. ↑ Frazier, Annabelle; Ferreira, Patricia A.; Gonzales, Joseph E. (October 23, 2019). "Born this way? A review of neurobiological and environmental evidence for the etiology of psychopathy". Personality Neuroscience. 2: e8. doi:10.1017/pen.2019.7. PMC   7219694 . PMID   32435743.
  13. ↑ "Professor Avshalom Caspi". British Academy. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  14. ↑ "APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions". American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Avshalom Caspi Awards & Honors". Duke Moffitt & Caspi. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  16. ↑ "The Dunedin Study wins Rutherford Medal and other Research Honours Aotearoa winners celebrated in Ōtepoti Dunedin". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  17. ↑ "CO-EDITORS OF THE ANNUAL REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY". Annual Reviews. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
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