Research Projects

The ABCD study is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. The ABCD Research Consortium consists of a Coordinating Center, a Data Informatics and Analysis Center, and 21 research sites across the country, which have recruited and are following nearly 12,000 children ages 9-10 into early adulthood. At our research site located at Yale University, we have recruited and are following over 630 youth. More information about the study can be found here: https://abcdstudy.org/.

Psychopathology peaks during adolescence, when there is significant neurocognitive and socioemotional development. Our research focuses on how youth with psychopathology visually perceive their social and emotional world. We are using representational similarity analysis of functional MRI data to examine how neural representations of socioemotional cues differ in youth with and without psychopathologies.

Chronic stress, which is defined as being constant and long-term, has a prominent impact on physiological, biological, and metabolic systems. Historical and present racial discrimination in the U.S. has been associated with long-term stress and related to mental and physical health. Individuals subjected to early life stressors (ELS) have higher chances of experiencing mental illnesses and other difficulties with cognitive functions later in life.

Much of our research has examined the extended period of adolescence. Adolescence is a period of enhanced learning and adaptiveness to the many social, physical and cognitive demands of this development phase as they move from dependence to relative independence from their parents and caregivers. It is a time when youth form a sense of who they are and hope to be. While there are continued changes in brain and behavior over the life span, there are especially significant changes during the prolonged period of adolescence that extends into the twenties.