Adolescent brain development: what we know and what it means for policy

Adolescent brain development – what we know and what it means for policy

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Cambridge

Thursday 29 June 2023 (5pm-6:15pm)

Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge

The Centre for Science and Policy is hosting a lecture at Trinity College which will be delivered by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on “Adolescent brain development: what we know and what it means for policy.” 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. Her group runs behavioural studies in schools and in the lab, as well as neuroimaging studies, with adolescents and adults.

Professor Blakemore is actively engaged in policy activities, including as a former member of the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee and the Times Education Commission, and Chair of the Royal Society of Biology Education and Science Policy Committee. She has been awarded a number of national and international prizes for her research. She is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the American Association for Psychological Science.

In her book, Inventing Ourselves: the secret life of the teenage brain, Professor Blakemore explains how the adolescent brain transforms as it develops and shapes the adults we become. Drawing upon her cutting-edge research Professor Blakemore explores:

• What makes the adolescent brain different?
• Why does an easy child become a challenging teenager?
• What drives the excessive risk-taking and the need for intense friendships common to teenagers?
• Why it is that many mental illnesses - depression, addiction, schizophrenia - begin during these formative years.

Professor Blakemore shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity and opportunity.

How to register

To register your place at the lecture, please visit our website here.