our review/perspective paper is now published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 😊 thanks again to my co-authors @divyangana.bsky.social & @richardfbetzel.bsky.social ! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

haily merritt, phd@h-merritt.bsky.social · 10mo ago

new preprint out! in this review/perspective paper, we synthesize research across network neuroscience, social neuroscience, and neuroecology to characterize how brain network organization varies across interpersonal social experience. osf.io/preprints/ps...

This #FreeAccess JCPP editorial highlights evidence that proximal, neighbourhood & structural conditions each contribute to #neurodevelopment & that their effects are often interdependent. Full Editorial by @divyangana.bsky.social et al. https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.70187

New paper led by @phoebethomson.bsky.social showing that childhood cognitive ability predicts multimodal brain development during adolescence. Now out in DCN @fluxsociety.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @kingsioppn.bsky.social

Thanks again to our wonderful speakers @vcalhoun.bsky.social , @divyangana.bsky.social and @alexfornito.bsky.social for presenting at our symposium “Optimizing you training: What’s Worth Your Time and What’s not?” If you missed the session, look forward to the recording being available online!

Congratulations to Dr Divyangana Rakesh, Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychology, who is one of 15 scholars from across the globe selected to join the CIFAR Global Scholars program! 🔗 Read more: www.kcl.ac.uk/news/dr-divy... @divyangana.bsky.social #ScienceatKings #NextGenResearchers

Dr Divyangana Rakesh joins CIFAR Global Scholars Program | King's College London

Dr Divyangana, Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychology, is one of 15 scholars from across the globe selected to join the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Global Scholars program as part of their Next-Generation initiative.

kcl.ac.uk

New publication in DCN, co-led with Natasha Chaku! 🧠Combining our expertise in brain and pubertal development, we sought to clarify how adversity shapes timing and pace of adolescent development across multiple levels of analysis: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Timing and tempo of puberty and neurodevelopment following adversity: A registered report

Stress exposure may influence the pace of pubertal and brain development; however, empirical findings are mixed, with evidence for both acceleration a…

sciencedirect.com

www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245... @divyangana.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social

Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Pubertal and Brain Development, and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Investigation

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with alterations in brain development and youth psychopathology risk. However, the mechanisms linking SES to neurodevelopment remain unclear. We tested whe...

biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org

Findings from our paper in Biological Psychiatry: CNNI @biologicalpsych.bsky.social Lower SES predicted earlier pubertal timing and slower tempo. In girls, this also linked to differences in cortical thinning, partly mediating between disadvantage and brain development. Open access paper 👇

starting March 1, 2026, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are prohibited from using central government funds to pay Article Processing Charges for high-priced OA journals, specifically Nature Communications and Science Advances.

The #AtlasLongitudinalDatasets is your one-stop shop for all things longitudinal! 🔎 Search, filter and explore your way through 2,600+ datasets from around the world! @kingsioppn.bsky.social @popres-uk.bsky.social @wellcometrust.bsky.social @mqmentalhealth.bsky.social

Excited to share this new paper from my lab led by Jiayi Zheng (Jenny) showing how higher sleep duration, lower screen time, and participation in extracurricular activities promotes cognitive development during adolescence. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Associations of Sleep, Screen Time, and Extracurricular Activities With Cognitive Development: A Longitudinal Study

Introduction Adolescence is a sensitive period typified by marked cognitive and neural development, during which modifiable lifestyle factors may be particularly relevant. However, longitudinal asso.....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

new preprint out! in this review/perspective paper, we synthesize research across network neuroscience, social neuroscience, and neuroecology to characterize how brain network organization varies across interpersonal social experience. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Link to a recent paper I forgot to share on bluesky! We investigated links between SES, changes in within-network connectivity, and academic outcomes in the ABCD study. Out in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience @fluxsociety.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Associations among socioeconomic disadvantage, longitudinal changes in within-network connectivity, and academic outcomes in the ABCD study

Lower parental socioeconomic status (SES) is consistently linked to lower academic achievement among adolescents, with early disparities persisting in…

sciencedirect.com

A study in Nature Mental Health uses data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort study to evaluate the relationship between state-level income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health in young people. go.nature.com/4872wyh 🧪

Read coverage on our article on macroeconomic income inequality, the brain, and mental health in @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/science/2025... www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains

Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’

theguardian.com

New paper in Nature Mental Health where we show that macroeconomic income inequality is associated with brain structure and function over and above individual-level SES and other state-level factors. These alterations may serve as pathways to mental health problems. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Macroeconomic income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health - Nature Mental Health

Rakesh et al. used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort study to evaluate the relationship between state-level income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health in young people.

nature.com

New #article from Rakesh et al: Economic Inequality and Mental Health: Causality, Mechanisms, and Interventions TL;DR: Economic inequality worsens mental health by increasing interpersonal social comparison and undermining the social capital of communities www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fu...

“Our findings suggest that structural income inequality is associated with neurobiological differences, even after accounting for absolute income and poverty. These brain differences, in turn, help explain links to adverse mental health outcomes.” www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Macroeconomic income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health - Nature Mental Health

Rakesh et al. used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort study to evaluate the relationship between state-level income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health in young people.

nature.com

Living in an unequal society, regardless of individual wealth, can lead to structural changes in the brains of children. #ScienceatKings #PopulationHealth

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains

Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’

theguardian.com

Important work on inequality changing children’s brain structure from @divyangana.bsky.social and colleagues. Best ways to reduce inequality: 1. Fair pay agreements for every sector 2. Abolish two child benefit cap, for universal social security 3. Fair tax. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains

Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’

theguardian.com

📢 We are hiring! 📢 For our @wellcometrust.bsky.social grant on information gathering biases in #OCD and #Schizophrenia, we are looking for a Postdoc in Computational Modelling, supervised by Peter Dayan and myself. Interested? See all the details in the job advert here: devcompsy.org/wp-content/u...

a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application

ALT: a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application

media.tenor.com

We’ve paved over everything and then wonder why people are anxious, angry, and disconnected. Asphalt addiction is real and ample green space is the bare minimum for a healthy city.

Longitudinal associations between greenspace exposure, structural brain development, and mental health and academic performance during early adolescence

Greenspace exposure is associated with positive mental health and academic outcomes. This preregistered longitudinal study examines whether the influence of greenspace exposure on structural brain dev...

biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 We used machine learning to examine how early life adversity ⚠️ is associated with the adolescent brain 🧠 in the ABCD Study across 7 adversity dimensions and 3 timepoints. 👉https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.659188v1

Check out our team's latest work on how early life adversity maps onto brain structure in youth, led by @kabro.bsky.social! Details below ⬇️

Dr Katharina Brosch@kabro.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 We used machine learning to examine how early life adversity ⚠️ is associated with the adolescent brain 🧠 in the ABCD Study across 7 adversity dimensions and 3 timepoints. 👉https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.659188v1

PhD studentship available in developmental cognitive neuroscience, in Cambridge - please publicise. Open to women candidates, as the student will be based at Newnham College.

Duncan Astle@duncanastle.bsky.social · last yr.

Funded PhD opportunity with @sjblakemore.bsky.social and I, at Cambridge. We are looking for someone interested in developmental science, to start in the coming academic year. Please share it with anyone you think might be interested (see details attached 😁). drive.google.com/file/d/1RIvg...

*New preprint* on ND and co-occurring mental health problems from my lab, led by Chiara Caserini! Using longitudinal data from ABCD we asked: What drives poor mental health outcomes in children with high ND traits? Here's brief summary 🧠🌳🏡 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1.... 1/n

Developmental pathways from childhood neurodevelopmental traits to early adolescent psychiatric dimensions: the role of environmental and lifestyle factors

Objectives: Transdiagnostic dimensional approaches have advanced our understanding of psychiatric comorbidity and developmental continuity, but have rarely been applied to investigate links between ne...

medrxiv.org

"Although growing up in poverty carries many risks, some children defy the odds & demonstrate positive cognitive outcomes." This blog explores how to foster #Resilience in disadvantaged contexts. Read the full blog here: www.acamh.org/blog/why-do-...

Why do some children from low-income families manage to thrive cognitively?

Why do some children from low-income families manage to thrive cognitively? Our study sheds light on this question by identifying key factors that promote cognitive resilience.

acamh.org

Excited to share our new paper where we show on links between #greenspace exposure, brain development over time, and mental health and academic outcomes, now published in Biological Psychiatry. Led by Qingyang Li! @kingsioppn.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Why are young girls, who begin puberty ahead of their same-age, same-sex peers, at an increased risk of depression and anxiety? Dr @divyangana.bsky.social outlines her research on this subject for the @bbrfoundation.bsky.social #AcademicSky #PsychSky bbrfoundation.org/content/chil...

Childhood Stress and Early Onset of Female Puberty May Raise Risk of Depression and Anxiety in Adolescence, Study Finds | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

Being exposed to trauma during childhood has been associated with significantly increased risk for developing depression and anxiety later in life. Precisely how trauma translates into greater risk re...

bbrfoundation.org

An article on our recent work led by @niamhmacsweeney.bsky.social bbrfoundation.org/content/chil...

Childhood Stress and Early Onset of Female Puberty May Raise Risk of Depression and Anxiety in Adolescence, Study Finds | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

Being exposed to trauma during childhood has been associated with significantly increased risk for developing depression and anxiety later in life. Precisely how trauma translates into greater risk re...

bbrfoundation.org