Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain

ABSTRACT

Adolescence is a time of change in hormones, the body, brain, mind and the social environment. It is also the stage of life when many mental health problems first appear. In this lecture, Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FRS will explore how the teenage brain undergoes dramatic changes that shape how young people think, feel and behave. Drawing on the latest research, she will examine why adolescents are particularly sensitive to social feedback, how peer pressure and risk-taking emerge, and why this life stage is a window of mental health vulnerability. This talk is ideal for teenagers, parents, educators and anyone curious about the inner workings of the adolescent mind.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS 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. You can read more about the group and their research here. Professor Blakemore is Deputy Head of Department - Research, and a Dining Fellow at Newnham College.

Professor Blakemore has been awarded several 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 American Association of Psychological Science, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.

Professor Blakemore teaches a final year Natural Sciences paper on Adolescence in Lent term. More biographical information can be found here.

Professor Blakemore's publications can be found on Google Scholar.

BBC The Life Scientific interview

TED talk

Book: Inventing Ourselves: the secret life of the teenage brain

Follow Professor Blakemore on Twitter

If you are interested in joining the Blakemore Lab, please get in touch. Please note that you should preferably have an educational background in experimental psychology and/or neuroscience.

Host or Publisher Faculty of Science, University of Auckland