Research at the Shriver Center
From its earliest days, the Shriver Center has recognized that mental retardation and developmental disabilities are complex phenomena that require an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. To that end, the Shriver Center is home to a broad program of scientific inquiry that features prominent biomedical, biobehavioral, and behavioral science components.
Our biomedical research investigates both normal and abnormal brain function; knowledge gained from each line of inquiry informs and augments the other. Historically, research programs at the Shriver Center had a strong focus on the neuronal role of glycoconjugates, which continues to this day. In addition, the program has both broadened and deepened over the years, now centering on several critical aspects of development: morphogenetic molecules and their effects on both brain formation and cognition (retinoic acid, steroidogenic factors, dopamine); cell-cell interactions during -- and their repercussions on -- neuronal migration and patterning; and gene regulatory mechanisms (transcription, splicing) which govern neuronal formation and hence affect the form and function of both the brain and the mind.
The Shriver Center’s biobehavioral and behavioral research program has a distinct interdisciplinary, translational character. Our research in this area originally focused primarily on behavior analysis and on persons with severe disabilities where we focused on more precise measurement of behavioral deficits and more effective methods for circumventing or bypassing such deficits. This work continues to flourish but has also advanced to the point where we have been able to develop a major technology transfer initiative whereby the products of basic and applied research are made fully accessible to individuals who can benefit directly from the knowledge gained. Moreover, the conceptual focus of our behavioral and biobehavioral research has broadened considerably. In the past decade, new programs have been developed in developmental psychology, developmental psycholinguistics, cognitive and information processing, sensory processes, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, and animal models of MRDD.
The growing role of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in influencing statewide MRDD programs has produced an ongoing effort to re-establish a vital social policy research capacity within the Shriver Center’s UCEDD. Working in concert with the Center for Health Policy and Research (CHPR) of Commonwealth Medicine at the medical school, the Shriver Center has established a substantial capacity to conduct survey research to assist decision-making processes in the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation.