Adolscent Develoment of Brain & Behaviour
Research Goals
Until relatively recently, adolescence was not regarded as an especially important time for brain development. Most focus was on the prenatal or early childhood period, when the brain is constructed and motor and language functions are brought online. However, we are now paying much greater attention to adolescence for the reason that morbidity and mortality rates increase 200% from early school age. This is not the result of cancer, heart disease or infection – instead, this is related to difficulties in the control of behaviour and emotion, resulting in accidents, suicide, depression, substance abuse and so on. The aim of the stream is to better understand the changes in reasoning and decision-making that occur from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, and to discover the alterations in brain structure and function that underpin them. In doing so, we hope to understand how the onset of mental illness impacts on the way the brain develops, and whether the normal trajectory of brain maturation is disrupted.