adolescent

High Stakes in the Adolescent Brain: Glia Ignite Under THC’s Influence

Screen Savers : Protecting adolescent mental health in a digital world

In our rapidly evolving digital world, there is increasing concern about the impact of digital technologies and social media on the mental health of young people. Policymakers and the public are nervous. Psychologists are facing mounting pressures to deliver evidence that can inform policies and practices to safeguard both young people and society at large. However, research progress is slow while technological change is accelerating.My talk will reflect on this, both as a question of psychological science and metascience. Digital companies have designed highly popular environments that differ in important ways from traditional offline spaces. By revisiting the foundations of psychology (e.g. development and cognition) and considering digital changes' impact on theories and findings, we gain deeper insights into questions such as the following. (1) How do digital environments exacerbate developmental vulnerabilities that predispose young people to mental health conditions? (2) How do digital designs interact with cognitive and learning processes, formalised through computational approaches such as reinforcement learning or Bayesian modelling?However, we also need to face deeper questions about what it means to do science about new technologies and the challenge of keeping pace with technological advancements. Therefore, I discuss the concept of ‘fast science’, where, during crises, scientists might lower their standards of evidence to come to conclusions quicker. Might psychologists want to take this approach in the face of technological change and looming concerns? The talk concludes with a discussion of such strategies for 21st-century psychology research in the era of digitalization.

Trends in NeuroAI - SwiFT: Swin 4D fMRI Transformer

Trends in NeuroAI is a reading group hosted by the MedARC Neuroimaging & AI lab (https://medarc.ai/fmri). Title: SwiFT: Swin 4D fMRI Transformer Abstract: Modeling spatiotemporal brain dynamics from high-dimensional data, such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), is a formidable task in neuroscience. Existing approaches for fMRI analysis utilize hand-crafted features, but the process of feature extraction risks losing essential information in fMRI scans. To address this challenge, we present SwiFT (Swin 4D fMRI Transformer), a Swin Transformer architecture that can learn brain dynamics directly from fMRI volumes in a memory and computation-efficient manner. SwiFT achieves this by implementing a 4D window multi-head self-attention mechanism and absolute positional embeddings. We evaluate SwiFT using multiple large-scale resting-state fMRI datasets, including the Human Connectome Project (HCP), Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD), and UK Biobank (UKB) datasets, to predict sex, age, and cognitive intelligence. Our experimental outcomes reveal that SwiFT consistently outperforms recent state-of-the-art models. Furthermore, by leveraging its end-to-end learning capability, we show that contrastive loss-based self-supervised pre-training of SwiFT can enhance performance on downstream tasks. Additionally, we employ an explainable AI method to identify the brain regions associated with sex classification. To our knowledge, SwiFT is the first Swin Transformer architecture to process dimensional spatiotemporal brain functional data in an end-to-end fashion. Our work holds substantial potential in facilitating scalable learning of functional brain imaging in neuroscience research by reducing the hurdles associated with applying Transformer models to high-dimensional fMRI. Speaker: Junbeom Kwon is a research associate working in Prof. Jiook Cha’s lab at Seoul National University. Paper link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.05916

Fragile minds in a scary world: trauma and post traumatic stress in very young children

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and disabling condition that affects larger numbers of children and adolescents worldwide. Until recently, we have understood little about the nature of PTSD reactions in our youngest children (aged under 8 years old). This talk describes our work over the last 15 years working with this very young age group. It overviews how we need a markedly different PTSD diagnosis for very young children, data on the prevalence of this new diagnostic algorithm, and the development of a psychological intervention and its evaluation in a clinical trial.

Diurnal rhythms of the eye

Do all components of the living human eye have a measurable diurnal rhythm? In this talk I will discuss methodologies and results of studies on adolescents and young adults. I will also touch upon the associations between diurnal rhythms of the eye and behavioral activities.

Western diet consumption and memory impairment: what, when, and how?

Habitual consumption of a “Western diet”, containing higher than recommended levels of simple sugars and saturated fatty acids, is associated with cognitive impairments in humans and in various experimental animal models. Emerging findings reveal that the specific mnemonic processes that are disrupted by Western diet consumption are those that rely on the hippocampus, a brain region classically linked with memory control and more recently with the higher-order control of food intake. Our laboratory has established rat models in which excessive consumption of different components of a Western diet during the juvenile and adolescent periods of development yields long-term impairments in hippocampal-dependent memory function without concomitant increases in total caloric intake, body weight, or adiposity. Our ongoing work is investigating alterations in the gut microbiome as a potential underlying neurobiological mechanism linking early life unhealthy dietary factors to adverse neurocognitive outcomes.

Apathy and Anhedonia in Adult and Adolescent Cannabis Users and Controls Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

COVID-19 lockdown measures have caused severe disruptions to work and education and prevented people from engaging in many rewarding activities. Cannabis users may be especially vulnerable, having been previously shown to have higher levels of apathy and anhedonia than non-users. In this survey study, we measured apathy and anhedonia, before and after lockdown measures were implemented, in n = 256 adult and n = 200 adolescent cannabis users and n = 170 adult and n = 172 adolescent controls. Scores on the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) and Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) were investigated with mixed-measures ANCOVA, with factors user group, age group, and time, controlling for depression, anxiety, and other drug use. Adolescent cannabis users had significantly higher SHAPS scores before lockdown, indicative of greater anhedonia, compared with adolescent controls (P = .03, η p2 = .013). Contrastingly, adult users had significantly lower scores on both the SHAPS (P < .001, η p2 = .030) and AES (P < .001, η p2 = .048) after lockdown compared with adult controls. Scores on both scales increased during lockdown across groups, and this increase was significantly smaller for cannabis users (AES: P = .001, η p2 = .014; SHAPS: P = .01, η p2 = .008). Exploratory analyses revealed that dependent cannabis users had significantly higher scores overall (AES: P < .001, η p2 = .037; SHAPS: P < .001, η p2 = .029) and a larger increase in scores (AES: P = .04, η p2 =.010; SHAPS: P = .04, η p2 = .010), compared with non-dependent users. Our results suggest that adolescents and adults have differential associations between cannabis use as well as apathy and anhedonia. Within users, dependence may be associated with higher levels of apathy and anhedonia regardless of age and a greater increase in levels during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Stress deceleration theory: chronic adolescent stress exposure results in decelerated neurobehavioral maturation

Normative development in adolescence indicates that the prefrontal cortex is still under development thereby unable to exert efficient top-down inhibitory control on subcortical regions such as the basolateral amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. This imbalance in the developmental trajectory between cortical and subcortical regions is implicated in expression of the prototypical impulsive, compulsive, reward seeking and risk-taking adolescent behavior. Here we demonstrate that a chronic mild unpredictable stress procedure during adolescence in male Wistar rats arrests the normal behavioral maturation such that they continue to express adolescent-like impulsive, hyperactive, and compulsive behaviors into late adulthood. This arrest in behavioral maturation is associated with the hypoexcitability of prelimbic cortex (PLC) pyramidal neurons and reduced PLC-mediated synaptic glutamatergic control of BLA and nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) neurons that lasts late into adulthood. At the same time stress exposure in adolescence results in the hyperexcitability of the BLA pyramidal neurons sending stronger glutamatergic projections to the NAcC. Chemogenetic reversal of the PLC hypoexcitability decreased compulsivity and improved the expression of goal-directed behavior in rats exposed to stress during adolescence, suggesting a causal role for PLC hypoexcitability in this stress-induced arrested behavioral development. (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.21.469381v1.abstract)

The GluN2A Subunit of the NMDA Receptor and Parvalbumin Interneurons: A Possible Role in Interneuron Development

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are excitatory glutamate-gated ion channels that are expressed throughout the central nervous system. NMDARs mediate calcium entry into cells, and are involved in a host of neurological functions. The GluN2A subunit, encoded by the GRIN2A gene, is expressed by both excitatory and inhibitory neurons, with well described roles in pyramidal cells. By using Grin2a knockout mice, we show that the loss of GluN2A signaling impacts parvalbumin-positive (PV) GABAergic interneuron function in hippocampus. Grin2a knockout mice have 33% more PV cells in CA1 compared to wild type but similar cholecystokinin-positive cell density. Immunohistochemistry and electrophysiological recordings show that excess PV cells do eventually incorporate into the hippocampal network and participate in phasic inhibition. Although the morphology of Grin2a knockout PV cells is unaffected, excitability and action-potential firing properties show age-dependent alterations. Preadolescent (P20-25) PV cells have an increased input resistance, longer membrane time constant, longer action-potential half-width, a lower current threshold for depolarization-induced block of action-potential firing, and a decrease in peak action-potential firing rate. Each of these measures are corrected in adulthood, reaching wild type levels, suggesting a potential delay of electrophysiological maturation. The circuit and behavioral implications of this age-dependent PV interneuron malfunction are unknown. However, neonatal Grin2a knockout mice are more susceptible to lipopolysaccharide and febrile-induced seizures, consistent with a critical role for early GluN2A signaling in development and maintenance of excitatory-inhibitory balance. These results could provide insights into how loss-of-function GRIN2A human variants generate an epileptic phenotypes.

Neuro-Immune Coupling: How the Immune System Sculpts Brain Circuitry

In this lecture, Dr Stevens will discuss recent work that implicates brain immune cells, called microglia, in sculpting of synaptic connections during development and their relevance to autism, schizophrenia and other brain disorders. Her recent work revealed a key role for microglia and a group of immune related molecules called complement in normal developmental synaptic pruning, a normal process required to establish precise brain wiring. Emerging evidence suggests aberrant regulation of this pruning pathway may contribute to synaptic and cognitive dysfunction in a host of brain disorders, including schizophrenia. Recent research has revealed that a person’s risk of schizophrenia is increased if they inherit specific variants in complement C4, gene plays a well-known role in the immune system but also helps sculpt developing synapses in the mouse visual system (Sekar et al., 2016). Together these findings may help explain known features of schizophrenia, including reduced numbers of synapses in key cortical regions and an adolescent age of onset that corresponds with developmentally timed waves of synaptic pruning in these regions. Stevens will discuss this and ongoing work to understand the mechanisms by which complement and microglia prune specific synapses in the brain. A deeper understanding of how these immune mechanisms mediate synaptic pruning may provide novel insight into how to protect synapses in autism and other brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease.

Unpacking Nature from Nurture: Understanding how Family Processes Affect Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Mental Health problems among youth constitutes an area of significant social, educational, clinical, policy and public health concern. Understanding processes and mechanisms that underlie the development of mental health problems during childhood and adolescence requires theoretical and methodological integration across multiple scientific domains, including developmental science, neuroscience, genetics, education and prevention science. The primary focus of this presentation is to examine the relative role of genetic and family environmental influences on children’s emotional and behavioural development. Specifically, a complementary array of genetically sensitive and longitudinal research designs will be employed to examine the role of early environmental adversity (e.g. inter-parental conflict, negative parenting practices) relative to inherited factors in accounting for individual differences in children’s symptoms of psychopathology (e.g. depression, aggression, ADHD ). Examples of recent applications of this research to the development of evidence-based intervention programmes aimed at reducing psychopathology in the context of high-risk family settings will also be presented.

A developmental-cognitive perspective on the impact of adolescent social media use

Concerns about the impact of social media use on adolescent well-being and mental health are common. While the amount of research in this area has increased rapidly over the last 5 years, most outputs are still marred by a multitude of limitations. These shortcomings have left our understanding of social media effects severely limited, holding back both scientific discovery and policy interventions. This talk discusses how developmental, cognitive and neuroscientific approaches might provide a new and improved way of studying social media effects. It will detail new studies in support of this idea, and raise potential avenues for collaborative work across the Cambridge Neuroscience community. As the digital world now (re)shapes what it means for us to live, communicate and develop, only an interdisciplinary approach will allow us to truly understand its impacts.

Toward an understanding of the impact of prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants on brain development

The risks of in utero and early exposure to environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, on child neurodevelopment is now established, however our understanding of how these contaminants alter the human brain is very limited. To address this issue, more effort must be made to integrate brain imaging tools with epidemiological studies. In this seminar, I will be presenting EEG and MRI data collected in birth-cohort studies where impairments of cognitive and sensory functions were observed in association with prenatal exposure to mercury, lead, PCB or organophosphate insecticides. Results obtained in children and adolescents suggest that each pollutant might affect different levels of brain processing and that frontal regions are particularly vulnerable.

Behavioral, circuit and molecular mechanisms of adolescent safety learning

Two pathways to self-harm in adolescence

The behavioural and emotional profiles underlying adolescent self-harm, and its developmental risk factors, are relatively unknown. The authors of this paper aimed to identify sub-groups of young people who self-harm (YPSH) and longitudinal predictors leading to self-harm using the Millennium Cohort Study. (Pre-print: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.10.20150789v1)

Schizophrenia and Substance Use Disorders: Cracking the Chicken-or-Egg Question

Although substance use disorders (SUDs) occur commonly in patients with schizophrenia and significantly worsen their clinical course, the neurobiological basis of SUDs in schizophrenia is not well understood. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the mechanisms underlying SUDs in schizophrenia in order to identify potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Since drug use usually begins in adolescence, it is also important to understand the long-term effects of adolescent drug exposure on schizophrenia- and reward- related behaviors and circuitry. This talk will combine pharmacological, behavioral, electrophysiologic (local field potential recordings) and pre-clinical magnetic resonance imaging (resting-state functional connectivity and magnetic resonance spectroscopy) approaches to study these topics with an eye toward developing better treatment approaches.

Development of the social brain in adolescence and effects of social distancing

Adolescence is a period of life characterised by heightened sensitivity to social stimuli, an increased need for peer interaction and peer acceptance, and development of the social brain. Lockdown and social distancing measures intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 are reducing the opportunity to engage in face-to-face social interaction with peers. The consequences of social distancing on human social brain and social cognitive development are unknown, but animal research has shown that social deprivation and isolation have unique effects on brain and behaviour in adolescence compared with other stages of life. It is possible that social distancing might have a disproportionate effect on an age group for whom peer interaction is a vital aspect of development.

Investigating the impact of the pandemic on adolescent anxiety and cognitive function

Meg was awarded funding to look into how the coronavirus pandemic has affected children's mental health and wellbeing.

The impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of children and young people

The recent pandemic arrived at a time when mental health of children and young people was deteriorating, particular among teenage girls and young women. Lockdown produced a plethora of mental health surveys, but very few of these had pre-pandemic data. This talk will summarise the current evidence of how covid-19 seems to have affected the mental health of children and young people from various studies in the UK.

ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ALTERS ADULT STRESS-INDUCED VOCALIZATIONS IN MICE: PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF DHA SUPPLEMENTATION

FENS Forum 2026

ADOLESCENT SLEEP RESTRICTION AND ALCOHOL DRINKING HAVE DIVERGENT LONG-LASTING EFFECTS ON BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

FENS Forum 2026

POST-STRESS ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT AS A RESCUE STRATEGY AGAINST LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF ADOLESCENT STRESS

FENS Forum 2026

IMPACT OF DHA SUPPLEMENTATION ON BEHAVIORAL FLEXIBILITY FOLLOWING ADOLESCENT INTERMITTENT ETHANOL EXPOSURE IN ADULT MICE

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EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM HIGH-FAT DIET ON ASTROCYTIC REMODELING AND DCX<SUP>+</SUP> CELL MATURATION IN THE DORSAL HIPPOCAMPUS OF ADOLESCENT MICE

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ADOLESCENT CHRONIC SLEEP RESTRICTION AND ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ALTER ADULT SLEEP AND BEHAVIOUR

FENS Forum 2026

MODULATION OF THE THC EFFECTS IN ADOLESCENT RODENTS BY AN A<SUB>2A</SUB> RECEPTOR AGONIST

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BINGE-LIKE ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ALTERS TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF ENDOGENOUS OPIOID SYSTEM GENES IN PREADOLESCENT RATS

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ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL ABUSE ARRESTS ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOTYPE OF NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS MEDIUM SPINY NEURONS IN A LATE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE

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INTEGRATED BIOLOGICAL PROFILES MODULATE ATTACHMENT-RELATED AUTONOMIC REGULATION IN ADOLESCENT PRIMARY HEADACHE

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SEX-SPECIFIC ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLYGENIC RISKS FOR MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER, PERINATAL ADVERSITY, BRAIN MATURATION AND ADOLESCENT INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS

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BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF REPEATED CAFFEINE EXPOSURE IN ADOLESCENT FEMALE AND MALE RATS ASSESSED IN THE MCSF

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CANNABIS EXPOSURE AS THE KEY PREDICTOR OF VERBAL EPISODIC MEMORY IN ADOLESCENT CANNABIS USERS

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REDUCED EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION LINKED TO LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE

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SEX-DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF ADOLESCENT CHRONIC STRESS ON COGNITIVE BIAS AND FUNCTIONAL CONNECTOME IN EMERGING ADULTHOOD

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ADOLESCENT MATURATION OF FEEDFORWARD AND FEEDBACK INHIBITORY CIRCUITS IN THE MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX

FENS Forum 2026

STRUCTURAL MRI STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF A FULLY REMOTELY DELIVERED AND INNOVATIVE MIND-BODY INTERVENTION ON IMPROVING INSOMNIA SYMPTOMS IN ADOLESCENTS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

FENS Forum 2026

SEX-DIVERGENT EFFECTS OF ADOLESCENT CANNABIDIOL EXPOSURE ON ADULT SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY

FENS Forum 2026

ADOLESCENT LIGHT–DARK CYCLE DISRUPTION ALTERS NEUROBEHAVIOURAL FUNCTION AND CORTICO-HIPPOCAMPAL STRUCTURE: PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FOR MODULATORY EFFECTS OF NANOCURCUMIN

FENS Forum 2026

THE CONTRIBUTION OF CEREBRAL VASCULATURE AND METABOLIC REGULATION TO MYELIN ALTERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL ABUSE

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TARGETED CHEMOGENETIC MODELS OF EARLY-ADOLESCENT SLEEP DISTURBANCE – METABOLIC CONSEQUENCES IN MICE

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PRENATAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ALTERS PREFRONTAL SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN ADOLESCENT MICE

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<IMG SRC="" CLASS="FR-FIC FR-FIL FR-DIB FR-DRAGGABLE">ADOLESCENT-SPECIFIC CONSEQUENCES OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION: A CRITICAL DEVELOPMENTAL WINDOW LEADING TO PERSISTENT ADULT MEMORY IMPAIRMENT VIA OVERACTIVATION OF HIPPOCAMPAL ASTROCYTIC GR

FENS Forum 2026

THE EFFECTS OF PSILOCYBIN ON THE EXTINCTION OF LEARNED FEAR IN ADOLESCENT RATS

FENS Forum 2026

ACUTE STRESS DYSREGULATES MICROGLIA AND THE EXCITATORY–INHIBITORY BALANCE IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF COCAINE-WITHDRAWN ADOLESCENT RATS

FENS Forum 2026

EFFECTS OF TSC2 KNOCK-DOWN IN JUVENILE AMYGDALA ON AMYGDALA AND PREFRONTAL CORTEX ACTIVITY IN ADOLESCENT RATS

FENS Forum 2026

LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES OF ADOLESCENT EXPOSURE TO JWH-018 IN MALE AND FEMALE WILD-TYPE AND BDNF VAL66MET MICE

FENS Forum 2026

RESTORATIVE POTENTIAL OF A <EM>PSILOCYBE CUBENSIS</EM> EXTRACT AGAINST MEMORY DEFICITS FROM INTERMITTENT ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL EXPOSURE IN MICE

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ADOLESCENT STRESS INDUCES A DEPRESSIVE-LIKE PHENOTYPE ACCOMPANIED BY METABOLIC AND NEUROIMMUNE DISRUPTIONS

FENS Forum 2026

INHIBITORY CONTROL MEG EVENT-RELATED FIELDS AS PREDICTIVE BIOMARKERS FOR BINGE DRINKING IN ADOLESCENTS

FENS Forum 2026

NEURAL MECHANISMS OF SUSTAINED FORCE CONTROL IN ADOLESCENTS WITH JUVENILE FIBROMYALGIA

FENS Forum 2026

COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING OF MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHIC ODDBALL RESPONSES IN ADOLESCENTS AT FAMILIAL HIGH-RISK FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA OR BIPOLAR DISORDER

FENS Forum 2026

UNVEILING THE CONSEQUENCES OF ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ON PREFRONTAL CORTEX MATURATION AND RELATED BEHAVIORS

FENS Forum 2026

PROTEOME-WIDE MENDELIAN RANDOMIZATION AND MULTIVARIABLE STUDIES IDENTIFY ADOLESCENT-SPECIFIC PREDICTORS OF TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION

FENS Forum 2026

BITTERSWEET: EXPLORING THE AGE- AND SEX-DEPENDENT IMPACT OF ADOLESCENT SUGAR CONSUMPTION ON FOOD-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR

FENS Forum 2026

ADOLESCENT SOCIAL ISOLATION INDUCED TRANSCRIPTOMIC CHANGES IN THE HYPOTHALAMUS DRIVES ALTERED NEUROENDOCRINE AND BEHAVIOURAL OUTCOMES

FENS Forum 2026

EARLY-LIFE <EM DATA-START="471" DATA-END="494" >LACTOBACILLUS REUTERI</EM> SUPPLEMENTATION PREVENTS CHRONIC STRESS–INDUCED BEHAVIORAL DISINHIBITION IN ADOLESCENT OFFSPRING OF HIGH-FAT DIET–FED DAMS

FENS Forum 2026

NON-CODING RNA CHANGES IN ADOLESCENT STRESS-EXPOSED FEMALE RATS AND THEIR OFFSPRING

FENS Forum 2026

COGNITIVE PROFILES AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH BRAIN ABNORMALITIES, EPILEPSY, AND GENETICS IN CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND ADULTS WITH LAMA2-ASSOCIATED MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY (LAMA2-RD)

FENS Forum 2026

CHRONIC THC EXPOSURE IN ADOLESCENT VERVET MONKEYS: EFFECTS ON RETINAL FUNCTION

FENS Forum 2026