Topic: adolescence

Rachna Reddy studies relationships among wild chimpanzees and bonobos to investigate adolescence as a period of both vulnerability and resilience. Drawing on more than a decade observing chimpanzees, the presentation brings together biological, anthropological, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives through cross-species empirical research. It connects questions about development in our closest living relatives with understanding the human life course; Reddy’s fellowship work also includes a coming-of-age novel informed by the lives of the chimpanzees she studies.

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

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 pharmac

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 w

Background: The balance of excitation and inhibition (E-I) is a key functional property of cortical microcircuits [1] which changes through lifespan. Adolescence is considered a crucial period for the maturation of E-I balance [2,3]. This has been primarily observed in animal studies, and human in vivo evidence on adolescent maturation of the E-I balance at an individual level is limited. Here, we investigated an in vivo marker of regional E-I balance in human adolescents based on individualized biophysical network models. Methods: Regional E-I balance was estimated using large-scale simulati

Emotions are fundamental to human development and survival across the lifespan. Adolescence is a volatile and critical developmental period characterized by frequent high-intensity positive and negative emotions. Emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic risk factor for various mental health disorders, specifically depression symptoms and suicidal behaviors. This study aims to explore the association of emotion regulation difficulties with depression and suicide risk among adolescent undergraduate students. The cross-sectional study used a descriptive-analytical design and sampled 384 partici