The Adolescent Brain

My doctoral research (2003–2007) at University College London investigated the development of social cognition during adolescence using behavioural and functional neuroimaging methods. The goal of my work since then at the Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University and the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin has been to bring a social and historical sensibility to contemporary neuroscience’s model of the "teen brain" and to examine the social and cultural contexts of adolescent brain development and its links to youth mental health and social policy. My research projects explore the subjective experiences of adolescents on psychotropic medications; climate activism and ecoanxiety among youth; social inequality and the adolescent brain; the narrative of the “teen brain” and its effects on youth subjectivities, and the politics of plasticity.