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It's time to lay the stereotype of teenage brain to rest! That period stretching between childhood and adulthood is often pigeon-holed as a ‘brain under construction’. But what is it about the period of adolescence, sometimes linked with past adversity, that can increase vulnerability to mental ill health that can persist throughout adult life? We’ll explore the science behind those teenage years.
Does time heal all wounds? How adverse childhood experiences can shape life
Ayla Pollman
(PhD Student in Developmental Neuropsychology @KCL)
When a young person’s physical and emotional needs are not met, these experiences are known as Adverse Childhood Experiences. Adversity during youth can have a profound impact on a person’s life. And they are, unfortunately, far more common than you might think. Children and adolescents are especially sensitive to repeated stress because their brains and bodies are still developing and sensitive to the impact of the environment. In this talk I will discuss how adverse experiences during childhood can shape life – and how some people thrive in the face of adversity.
Understanding Emotion Regulation From the Perspective of Neurodivergent Youth
Dr Myrofora Kakoulidou
(Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN)
Dr Steve Lukito
(Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN)
Research on the emotional lives of neurodivergent young people (YP) are often adapted from those of neurotypical young people or adults. In the RE-STAR programme, perspectives of neurodivergent YP are central to our research. We will present findings from our qualitative study My Emotions and Me, co-delivered with young people researchers; and our next study plans, including a neurobiological investigation of the underpinning of emotions in neurodivergent YP and an explorative study on how YP and school staff can have their best life in school.
The Adolescent Brain – Tales from Cognitive Neuroscience
Dr Emma Jayne Kilford
(Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the UCL Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology)
As we make the transition from childhood to adulthood our bodies change, our hormones change, and so does how we feel, think and behave. This time of flux lasts for longer in humans than most animals and includes extensive changes in the brain that specialise it for the complex social world around us. As adolescents, we are more able to shape our environment than children, at a time when the brain is still developing and more capable of change than in adulthood. These adaptive changes help us transition to independence and make adolescence a unique time of life for neurocognitive development.
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