Profiled this week on the BBC News, the U-Change study will use brain scans, questionnaires and genetic testing on 300 people between the ages of 14 and 24 to improve our understanding of how different parts of the brain develop.
Professor Ed Bullmore, lead researcher on this project from the University of Cambridge, said: “The teenage brain struggles with controlling impulsive and emotional behaviour – as most parents of an adolescent can attest. Our research will hopefully shed light on what happens to their brains as they mature.
“It seems very likely that the major cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes of adolescence will turn out to be related to the alterations that occur in brain networks during this period.”
This is the first study of its kind to use both conventional MRI to examine normal youth brain development by taking scans over a period of several years and fMRI, a type of brain scan that enables scientists to see blood flow which represents brain activity and will allow researchers to measure brain function in the same subjects.
Watch a video and read the full story
Image: Brain mapping of teenagers
Credit: Becky Inkster
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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