Idea Transcript
Laudatio for professor Terrie Moffitt Delivered in Leuven on 14 September 2017 by Professor Karla Van Leeuwen, promotor doctor honoris causa
Honourable Rector, Dear Professor Moffitt, Your Excellencies, Dear Colleagues, Dear Students, Ladies and Gentlemen, “I am always fascinated by the astounding variety of humanity, and as a researcher I am driven by curiosity about the extreme ends of the human spectrum”. This quote by Terrie Moffitt beautifully describes her drive to investigate the development of individuals throughout the life-span. In her scientific work she addresses a variety of research topics and questions related to human well-being, physical and mental health. She is interested in how individual differences in temperament, personality, cognitive or genetic characteristics, and environmental features, such as abuse in childhood, being bullied as a child, experiencing violence in intimate relationships, work stress, or growing up in a dangerous neighborhood, shape the development of psychiatric disorders and health differences. Although human society has changed much over the last centuries, and life conditions seem to get better, it is still a major challenge to science and to policy units to find ways to promote human well-being and to prevent or to treat mental and physical diseases. Without exaggerating we can say that the innovative research of Terrie Moffitt contributes to scientific insights to achieve this goal. Today, we celebrate the rich scientific career of Terrie Moffitt. As a student she delved into the multifaceted world of psychology, with a focus on experimental animal behavior, clinical psychology and clinical behavioral neuroscience. In her academic career, she held research and teacher positions at different universities and institutions, including the University of Southern California, the Harvard School of Public Health in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of South Carolina. Currently she is professor at Duke University in the USA, King’s College London in the UK, and the University of Otago in New Zealand, with appointments in the areas psychology and neuroscience, psychiatry, and genomic and computational biology. She was also trained as a licensed clinical psychologist. She worked for example with geriatric patients and patients with brain trauma and epilepsy. The scientific contributions of Terrie Moffitt are extensive and it seems an almost hopeless task to capture them in a few words. Therefore, we will focus on a selection of topics.
Terrie Moffitt is well-known for her vital role in two longitudinal studies. Together with her husband, the eminent researcher Avshalom Caspi, she is founder of The Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, abbreviated the E-Risk study. The E-Risk study follows since 1998 a nationally representative birth cohort in the United Kingdom, consisting of more than 1000 families with twin children who were 5 years old at the first assessment. Innovative in the ERisk Study is the collection of DNA to fill in the black box of genetic variance. Besides the Erisk study, she is co-director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study in New Zealand, in which a birth cohort of more than 1000 infants is followed up since 1973. This year, a new data-collection was launched, with the New Zealand study members assessed at age 45. An important strength of these population cohort studies is the possibility to take a prospective, developmental approach to clarify origins and correlates of human behavior and psychopathology. In general it takes much persuasiveness to get recurrent financial funding for longitudinal research, besides a lot of energy to organize it, so it is quite unique that these studies continue for so long. Terrie Moffitt and her research team also realize that it is very important to create a culture of trust and confidentiality to make possible that the study ‘members’ give an intimate view of their lives and share their problems and achievements. And with success: as a result of their respectful approach, in the Dunedin study still 95 percent of the cohort took part in the study at age 38, and the E-risk study had a retention rate of 93 percent at age 18. The data that are derived from these studies are analyzed by Terrie Moffitt and her team in different ways. The twin study allows to conduct behavioral genetic analysis, to estimate to what extent genes and environmental factors contribute to phenotypic - or observable differences among individuals. The collection of DNA enables to perform on the one hand genome-wide analysis, in which millions of genetic polymorphisms are related to phenotypes. In candidate gene studies on the other hand, genes are selected based on some preceding theory about biological mechanisms, and the relationship between single genes or genetic pathways and behavioral phenotypes is explored. In gene by environment studies Terrie Moffitt and her team explore whether the effects of genes on a disorder depend on the environment. For example, a study that was published in Science, showed that maltreated male children with a genotype related to low levels of the neurotransmitter MAOA were more likely to develop antisocial behavior at a later age, whereas for children with high MAOA activity, maltreatment was not related to antisocial behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Recently Terrie Moffitt and her team have also investigated epigenetic processes, such as methylation, in which certain life circumstances switch genes on and off. Apart from a genetic approach, also other biological correlates of human behavior have been studied, as biomarkers of multiple organ systems are tracked in the longitudinal studies. The scientific output that these studies have yielded in terms of knowledge and new insights, is huge and proves the important value of longitudinal research. Terrie Moffitt has studied the origins and course of several abnormal human behaviors and psychiatric disorders, including depression, psychosis, and addiction. A topic that has made Terrie Moffitt renowned, is her research on criminology and youth delinquency. The
Dunedin study has generated a developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior with two types. In childhood-onset delinquents, also called life-course persistent delinquents, antisocial behavior begins in childhood and continues to get worse subsequently. In adolescence-limited offenders antisocial behavior only starts in adolescence and decreases in young adulthood. In adolescence these two groups have distinct characteristics with the childhood-onset group showing more neurocognitive problems, an undercontrolled temperament, psychopathic personality traits, hyperactivity and aggression, besides inadequate parenting. The adolescence-limited offenders seem to be more influenced by their environment, for example by peers. At age 26 the life-course persistent group presented more serious offending, a psychopathic personality and more problems in several life domains. The adolescence-limited group was more likely to settle down at age 26, but still had some problems. This is probably due because at that age they are still in a period called the ‘maturity gap’, the gap between biological and social age, as the mean age to take up more conventional roles in Dunedin appears to be 29 years. Recently, the Dunedin study found that fourteen percent of the men in the sample were first convicted after the age of 20, indicating evidence for a third type, labelled ‘official adult-onset offenders’. Likewise, Terrie Moffitt and her team have distinguished developmental subtypes for individuals with alcohol dependency and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Throughout her scientific career, Terrie Moffitt has been a pioneer and always one step ahead of identifying new research ideas. She looks at problems from different angles. This can be illustrated with two examples. First, she has questioned some sacred cows in the classification of psychopathology. Terrie Moffitt is a member of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium, that brings together a group of top clinical researchers. The consortium aims to address limitations of traditional nosologies, such as the DSM-5 and ICD-10. Limits of these classifications of diseases include arbitrary boundaries between psychopathology and normality, frequent disorder co-occurrence, heterogeneity within disorders, and diagnostic instability. HiTOP aims to develop an empirically driven classification system based on advances in quantitative evidence on the organization of psychopathology. Examining the structure of psychopathology, Terrie Moffitt and her team have argued that all psychiatric symptoms a person ever experiences can be captured in one dimension, called the ‘p’ factor. Second, Terrie Moffitt has put forward a research agenda to fill the knowledge gap concerning lifelong causes of aging. Most human aging research has focused on older adults, many with chronic disease. However, to be able to prevent the onset of age-related diseases and physical and cognitive decline, geroscientists should investigate the pace of aging in young people, to be able to identify factors that slow or speed the pace of aging, and to study the effects of prevention or intervention programs. Although Terrie Moffitt undertakes fundamental research, she consistently translates her findings into practical implications, not avoiding any critical or ethical questions that come across. For example, with respect to policy, the developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior has had implications for the organization of juvenile justice, as it questions incapacitation interventions, such as prison or being sentenced to institutional care for a long time. Juvenile-onset offenders are not children, but also not fully responsible adults,
and they differ from the life-course persistent offenders, therefore a developmental, tailored model of juvenile justice is essential. It is not always easy to face the public opinion, given that some research findings are quite controversial. For example, a recent paper summarized studies using different methodologies, and concluded that the proportion of the population who lives through adolescence and adulthood without a mental disorder is surprisingly small. The Dunedin Study even suggests that experiencing a diagnosable mental disorder at some point during the life course is the norm, not the exception. Concerning genetic research, the public’s feeling is often worried, with some individuals reluctant to provide DNA-based information in research. Many people belief in genetic determination, as if knowing a person’s genetic make-up is predicting one’s whole future. However, Terrie Moffitt thinks that a pessimistic or deterministic view is not justified: research on the development of mental and other health problems, indicates that early childhood years are equally important as genes, and intervention and prevention initiatives can alter negative life conditions. Gene by environment studies are relevant for interventionists because they provide information about which environmental risks should be modified, and they may facilitate individualized treatment for mental disorders. Terrie Moffitt has won an impressive amount of honors and awards for her work, including the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, and she was listed in the World’s most Influential Scientific Minds. She has published in top journals, including two articles in Science. For the members of the audience who like numbers: she has contributed to more than 400 publications listed in the Web of Science and she has an h-index of 119, with no less than 167 average citations per article, and more than 58 000 citations in total. Many scholars, working in the field of psychology, family studies, psychiatry, genetics, criminology, gerontology, and epidemiology, have come across the name of Terrie Moffitt and were inspired by her work. Many teachers have referred in their lectures to Terrie Moffitt’s theories and research, hence enriching the education and training of numerous students. The research topics at our faculty resemble closely the topics that Terrie Moffitt investigates, which makes this faculty honorary doctorate so appropriate. Furthermore, her multidisciplinary way of thinking and her research on the association between biological and behavioral aspects of humans has built bridges between Humanities and Biomedical Sciences. Given the open-minded and interdisciplinary nature of her work, a honorary doctorate for Terrie Moffitt fits the Faculty of psychology and educational sciences where out of the box thinking and cooperation across discipline boundaries within and outside the faculty, are frequently occurring, and where a critical societal attitude is highly valued. Finally, we want to honor Terrie Moffitt as a person. She is clearly a team-player, which is plain when scrolling through the publications she has contributed to: it can be noticed that the same names return, including the name of her reputed husband Avshalom Caspi. Terrie Moffitt is passionate in research, but also passionate in life. She is warm-hearted, and has a great sense of humor. Her respect for the human nature is also reflected in her respect for
nature itself. She has traveled all over the world, which is entirely in line with her openmindedness and pushing back the boundaries in research. It is a privilege to link our faculty and university to the name of Terrie Moffitt by granting her a faculty honorary doctorate. Om al deze redenen, mijnheer de Rector, verzoek ik u, op voordracht van de Academische Raad, het eredoctoraat van de KU Leuven te verlenen aan professor Terrie Moffitt.