RESEARCH

DoMAIN
CRITERIA
PRESENTED BY-
DR.DRON BHATIA
CONTENTS OF PRESENTATION
1. WHAT IS RDoC ?
2. HOW RDOC WORKS ?
3. WHA ARE SEVEN PILLARS OF RDoC ?
4. EXAMPLE OF RDoC use.
5. RDoC AND FUTURE?
6. Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): Key Components
What is RDoC?
• This alternative diagnostic approach, developed by Bruce Cuthbert
and Thomas Insel at NIMH, relies on behavioral neuroscience, brain
“circuits,” “cells,” and “self-report scales.
• RDoC is a dimensional approach for use in research, and its main goal
is to define clinical characteristics that may reflect the biology of the
illness with greater precision, hopefully leading to more specific
therapeutic targets compared to the broad overlapping categories of
the DSM. This approach may be useful for examining a number of
somatic symptom dimensions.
How RDoC works?
• The RDoC framework aims to identify these mechanisms by studying
individuals based on specific constructs, such as genes, neural circuits,
and behavioral measures, rather than traditional diagnostic categories
to improve our understanding of mental disorders by focusing on
specific neural circuits and their related functions, rather than
traditional diagnostic categories.
• RDoC framework is based on the idea that mental disorders are caused
by dysfunction in specific neural circuits and that by studying these
circuits, we can gain a better understanding of the underlying causes of
these disorders and develop new treatments.
• The framework includes several domains, such as cognition, negative
valence systems, and positive valence systems, and each domain is
further divided into specific constructs, such as emotion regulation and
reward processing.
• The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, sponsored by the National
Institute of Mental Health, is examining the neuroscience of basic
behavioral domains, with the goals of facilitating etiological research and
ultimately, improving diagnosis and treatments.
7 PILLARS OF RDoC
The translational perspective: psychopathology research should start with
what is known about normative neurobehavioral processes

The dimensional approach: assume dimensionality — among disorders

and between illness and health — unless data show otherwise

Reliable and valid measures are needed to dissect heterogeneity

Novel research designs and sampling methods are needed to elucidate data-
driven phenotypes

RDoC encourages integrative methods rather than favoring one method over
another

RDoC’s scope is constrained to focus on constructs for which there is solid

evidence to serve as a platform for ongoing research

RDoC is flexible and dynamic to accommodate the research advances that it tries
to foster
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): Key
Components
Negative valence systems:
• “Fear” and its opposite pole, “fearlessness” = amygdala, hippocampus, and
ventromedial prefrontal
• cortex
• “Potential threat” = hypothalamic–pituitary axis, hippocampus, cortisol releasing
factor, and cortisol
Arousal/regulatory processes:
• “Stress regulation” = raphe nuclei circuits; serotonin
• “Facilitated stimulus processing” = locus coeruleus circuit; norepinephrine
• “Readiness for stimulus processing and responding” = brain resting state network.
Cognitive systems:
• “Working memory”: dorsolateral PFC, other areas in PFC
• “Cognitive control” and opposite poles, “impulsivity, externalizing
behaviour” = anterior cingulate
• gyrus, various areas of medial and lateral PFC