Student Research Assistant Internship in the Pediatric Emotion & Resilience Lab (PEARL)! The PEARL aims to openly connect a child's emotional life experience with human biology. Mood problems in children are brain based, and we strive to understand the neural circuit dysfunction that underlies mood problems through critical sensitive periods in brain development. We take a holistic biopsychosocial approach to understanding and treating mood problems among youth that encompasses many aspects of childrens’ lives. We hope this multidisciplinary approach will lead to a greater understanding of how to treat mood problems and lead to happier and healthier youth. Student Research Assistants would have the opportunity to do any combination of the following in the PEARL lab: 1. Participate in weekly Lab Meetings 2. Co-pilot MRI scans 3. Administer neurocognitive tests 4. Score and enter data into REDcap databases; for the detail-oriented, build datasets 5. Oversee Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests conducted by nurses in a lab 6. Collect demographic data, vitals (heart rate, blood pressure), and EKG data 7. Administer surveys 8. Possibly Freesurf MRI data for very detail-oriented students and if training offered in the same timeframe 9. Help with community outreach 10. For highly motivated and dependable students, data analysis and/or work on posters or papers ***We ask that our students commit to at least 9 hours a week to our lab and commit to an entire school year. (Two 4.5-hour shifts a week would be most fruitful to the student and the lab, but other shift layouts can be considered). We also require students to enroll in one of Stanford's research elective courses (e.g., Psyc199r or 299r) so that they receive school credit for the volunteer experience. If you are able to commit to at least 9 hours/week for the entire school year, can enroll in a research elective course, and are interested in getting involved in the work done in our lab, please email your CV/resume and why you are interested in joining our lab to Melissa Packer: . For more information about the lab and its director, Dr. Manpreet Singh, please visit med.stanford.edu/pedmood and and also read the project descriptions below: Project Title: Risk and Resilience in Youth at Familial Risk for Mood Disorders Project Information: Have you ever come across people with mood problems who worry about passing on their struggles to their children? What can we recommend that concerned parents and kids do in order to promote childhood resilience—to equip kids with tools to cope with life’s stressors in adaptive, healthy ways? Get involved in this study, and you will come to better understand why some children of parents with mood disorders do not go on to struggle with those issues while others do! The goal of this study is to discover factors that make youth either vulnerable or resilient to developing mood symptoms. 
Children (8-17 years) of families with and without histories of Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder participate in clinical interviews, cognitive tasks, MRIs, and blood/saliva tests. We are starting to follow up with families participating in the study over the next 2-5 years to track neural and behavioral markers of risk over time and see if we can base any clinical outcomes on these measures. 
 Project Title: Arousal Induced by Medication Study (AIMS) Project Information: Have you ever come across parents who have children with mood issues and are debating whether or not to have them take medication for those issues? Ever curious about better understanding the potential risks versus benefits of prescribed antidepressant medication in youth? Or more generally, are you looking to gain expertise in conducting clinical drug trials? The goal of this multi-site trial is to evaluate the benefits and safety of antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment in teens who have a family history of Bipolar Disorder and therefore could be at risk specifically for antidepressant-related dysfunctional emotional arousal. These youth complete behavioral, clinical, physiological, and genetic assessments, as well as MRI scans of the brain. Project Title: Measuring Overeating and Mood Effects on Neurobehaviors ThroUgh Maturation: (MOMENTUM) Are you interested in better understanding mind and body interactions? This study aims to elucidate the relationship between mood and appetite. Youth 9-17 years old who are struggling to maintain a healthy weight and experiencing sad moods are invited to have an MRI scan at two time points over the course of two years to examine neural reward networks that are activated while the child plays a game in the scanner. Participants are also clinically evaluated for insulin sensitivity and symptoms of depression at baseline, 6 months, and 24 months. 
 Project Title: Janssen This is a NEW study that
invites adolescents and
young adults (15-25 years)
who have a parent with a diagnosis of Bipolar
Disorder (BD) to provide
clinical, genetic, and other biological information at 6-month intervals over 24
months. The goal of the study is to evaluate early risk markers
that are targets for
treatment with the overall
goal of delaying or preventing the onset of 
bipolar disorder in at-risk youth.