The teen brain: Mysteries and misconceptions
April 26: Join a conversation about the teenage brain’s strengths and vulnerabilities, how adults can support teenagers with mental health issues, and how teens can help one another
April 26, 2023 | 12 p.m. Pacific | 3 p.m. Eastern | 7 p.m. UTC
It may be difficult for older adults to fathom, but today’s teenagers have never lived in a world where depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders weren’t rife — and on the rise — among their peers. Just a few decades ago, many psychiatrists thought depression was a condition that affected only adults. Now we know better: Researchers think more than half of mental health disorders, including depression, begin by age 14.
The teenage years are a dynamic period of brain development, when neuronal connections undergo intense remodeling and pruning. This flexibility allows teenagers to learn quickly and adapt to a changing environment, but it can also make them vulnerable. Many questions have yet to be answered, such as why the risk of mental illness increases severalfold during adolescence, why some teens appear more resilient to mental health problems than others, and when the brain should be considered “mature.”
On Wednesday, April 26, join leading neuroscientist BJ Casey and teen mental health advocate Diana Chao for a conversation with Knowable Magazine and Annual Reviews about the teen brain’s unique strengths and challenges, and why many experts have declared a global mental health emergency in children and adolescents. We’ll talk about what adults can do to support the teenagers in their lives — and crucially, how teens can help one another.
This event is the second in a series of events and articles exploring the brain across the lifespan. “Inside the brain: A lifetime of change,” is supported by a grant from the Dana Foundation.
Register here for “The baby brain: Learning in leaps and bounds” and “ The mature mind: Aging resiliently.” If you can’t attend the live events, please register to receive an email when the replays are available.
Speakers
BJ Casey
Neuroscientist, Barnard College-Columbia University
BJ Casey is the Christina L. Williams Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neuroscience and Behavior at Barnard College-Columbia University. She pioneered the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the developing human brain, particularly during adolescence. Her scientific discoveries have been published in top-tier journals, including Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She has received the Association for Psychological Science Lifetime Achievement Mentor Award and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science.
Diana Chao
Mental health activist and founder of Letters to Strangers
Diana Chao founded Letters to Strangers (L2S) when she was a sophomore in high school, after bipolar disorder and a blinding condition nearly ended her life. Today, L2S is the largest global youth-for-youth mental health nonprofit, impacting over 35,000 people annually on six continents and publishing the world’s first youth-for-youth mental health guidebook for free. Chao has been honored by two US presidents at the White House and named a 2021 Princess Diana Legacy Award Winner, a 2020 L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth and a 2019 Oprah Magazine Health Hero. Chao studied geosciences at Princeton University and works as a climate scientist for Kinetic Analysis Corporation.
Moderator
Emily Underwood
Science Content Producer, Knowable Magazine
Emily Underwood has been covering science for over a decade, including as a neuroscience reporter for Science. She has a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University, and her reporting has won national awards, including a 2018 National Academies Keck Futures Initiatives Communication Award for magazine writing.
About
This event is part of an ongoing series of live events and science journalism from Knowable Magazine and Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.
The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing neuroscience and society.
Resources
More from Knowable Magazine
- Inside the adolescent brain
- When siblings become caregivers
- The brain, the criminal and the courts
- Searching for a better treatment for eating disorders
- Under-diagnosed and under-treated, girls with ADHD face distinct risks
- Video: Women and girls with ADHD
- In adults, and now in teens, poor sleep is linked to cardiovascular risk
- Effects of the pandemic on the developing child
- Sex, immunity and the brain
- Exercise boosts the brain — and mental health
- How a second language can boost the brain
Related Annual Reviews articles
- Beyond Simple Models of Self-Control to Circuit-Based Accounts of Adolescent Behavior
- Healthy Development as a Human Right: Insights from Developmental Neuroscience for Youth Justice
- Treating the Developing Brain: Implications from Human Imaging and Mouse Genetics
- Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice
- Anxiety Disorders During Childhood and Adolescence: Origins and Treatment
- Behavioral Disinhibition and the Development of Early-Onset Addiction: Common and Specific Influences
- fMRI Functional Connectivity Applied to Adolescent Neurodevelopment
- How to Understand Divergent Views on Bipolar Disorder in Youth
- Attempted and Completed Suicide in Adolescence
- Improving Care for Depression and Suicide Risk in Adolescents: Innovative Strategies for Bringing Treatments to Community Settings
- Suicide in African American Adolescents: Understanding Risk by Studying Resilience
- Self-Injury
- Schizophrenia as a Disorder of Development
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Risk of Substance Use Disorder: Developmental Considerations, Potential Pathways, and Opportunities for Research
- Peer Contagion in Child and Adolescent Social and Emotional Development
- Adolescent Development: Pathways and Processes of Risk and Resilience
- Adolescent Romantic Relationships
- Differences/Disorders of Sex Development: Medical Conditions at the Intersection of Sex and Gender
- The Genetic, Environmental, and Cultural Forces Influencing Youth Antisocial Behavior Are Tightly Intertwined
- Adolescent Suicide as a Failure of Acute Stress-Response System
This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews.