Fundamentals of the Adolescent Brain. "If all your friends jumped off.." - Part 1, with Dr. BJ Casey

Welcome to Part 1 of our mini-series discussing the development of the adolescent brain, intended for all audiences. In this first episode, learn about how adolescent brain development opens up a window of opportunity of learning, driven by risk-taking and the brain's reward response. This developmental period has important extensions into how adolescents make decisions and what we can do to create ideal environments. Give us a listen and learn the neuroscience behind one of the most important stages of our life!

To guide the discussion, we are joined by one of the world's leading research for adolescent brain develpoment, Dr. BJ Casey.  Dr. BJ Casey is the Christina L. Williams Professor of Neuroscience at Barnard College and Columbia University, where she directs the Fundamentals of the Adolescent Brain (FAB) Lab. Dr. Casey was one the first researchers to use neuroimaging to examine the developing human brain, and continues to be a driving force in the field. The host for the episode is Dr. Matt Mattoni, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. 

Part 2 is already up! In Part 2, we extend our discussion to the social contexts that are crucial to adolescence. Joined by Dr. Eveline Crone, we learn about how the adolescent brain thinks about others, regulates emotion, and what that means for our modern age of social media. Part 2 Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2024695/episodes/19386230, also available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Finally, for developmental scientists, please find three people outside of our field to share this episode with! This is a wonderful opportunity to share our science and its importance.