Adolescent Development of Brain & Behaviour
Research Highlights
A collaborative study with Prof Vicki Anderson and Dr Rick Leventer at the Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute and the Royal Children’s Hospital has investigated
children experiencing neurodevelopmental lesions (malformations of cortical
development). These anomalies in the migration of the brain’s grey matter can result
in children early in life having developmental delay, intellectual disability, epilepsy, or
significant motor impairment
PhD student, Cinzia de Luca has examined the cognitive, behavioural and social
development of children with these malformations in an attempt to understand the
contribution of abnormal brain formation to the development of psychopathology later
in life
The Adolescent Early Development Study: Prof Christos Pantelis, Dr Murat Yücel, Dr
Stephen Wood, Dr Ben Harrison, Alex Fornito and other MNC researchers are involved
in a large prospective, longitudinal study following a unique cohort of over 150 12-
13 year old pre-pubertal children. These children have been strategically selected
from a community sample of 2500 children for this investigation, which is examining
temperament as an investigative tool for the identification of both ‘risk’ and ‘resilience’
factors related to the development of mental disorder in adolescence
