Teenage Brain

This presentation will give an overview of Tic Disorders and Tourette Syndrome. It will aim to demystify the condition and give a simple explanation on the symptomatology of tics. The talk will cover a brief history of the public and medical awareness of tic disorders. The talk will focus on the recent increase in girls presenting to clinics with tics during lockdown. Dr Chowdhury will discuss the recent controversy regarding social media influences and other factors in lockdown that may have an effect on the onset of tics.

In this talk, I will discuss the extent to which existing research can inform us on the effect that social media use has on adolescents’ mental health. Specifically, I will address the way different patterns of social media use (e.g., scrolling through posts, messaging with friends, posting) might be related to different mental health states (e.g., wellbeing and life satisfaction) and conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety and eating disorders).

Liam’s work focuses on developing diffuse optical tomography methods to enable network connectivity to be studied in awake babies. Liam finished his PhD in 2021, which sought to advance methods using fNIRS & structural data to image longitudinal changes in activation in the baby brain. Outside of academia, Liam is the National Coordinator of Student for Kids International Projects (SKIP, https://www.skipkids.org.uk/), a charity run by students and young professionals which aims to improve the health, welfare and education of children through partnerships with community organisations overseas.