NST II - Adolescence
Lent Term 2024
NST II - Adolescence
Lent Term 2024
Wednesdays 12 p.m. -1 p.m.
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Department of Psychology, Cambridge
Adolescence - Overview
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
*=essential
†=recommended
Core text across course
*Blakemore, SJ (2019). Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain. Blackswan, UK
*Steinberg, L. (2014). Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence. Mariner Books, USA.
Definition
Culture
Evolution and species
General
†Blakemore, SJ. (2019). Adolescence and mental health. The Lancet 393(10185), 2030-2031. [REVIEW]
Puberty
Lecture 1 - Structural Brain Development in Adolescence
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
How does the onset of puberty impact brain development?
To what extent does brain development influence adolescent behaviour?
General
Brain development in adolescence
Cellular development in adolescence
Yakovlev, P. A., & Lecours, I. R. (1967). The myelogenetic cycles of regional maturation of the brain. In A. Minkowski (Ed.), Regional Development of the brain in early life. Oxford: Blackwell.
Dual system model
Puberty and structural brain development
Lecture 2 - Adolescence from an Evolutionary Anthropological Perspective
Dr. Emily Emmott, UCL
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
Is adolescence special?
Are there cross-cultural differences in adolescence?
Is adolescence universal?
What characteristics of adolescence are general across species and what are unique to humans?
What is the function of extended adolescence?
Background paper on human life history evolution
Application of life history theory to understand adolescence
Cross-cultural comparison of adolescence (book)
Schlegel, A. & Barry Iii, H. (1991). Adolescence: An anthropological inquiry. Free Press.
Lecture 3 - Risk-Taking and Peer Influence in Adolescence
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
Are adolescents more influenced by their peers than other age groups?
What adolescent-specific or adolescent-emergent changes in self-control occur during this period?
Why do you think society has negative stereotypes of adolescents? Are these stereotypes supported by the evidence?
Describe and discuss the models of adolescent risk taking.
Is risk taking heightened in adolescence?
Risk taking
Peer influence on decision making and social risk taking
Lecture 4 - Adolescent Mental Health
Dr. Sharon Neufeld, Psychiatry, Cambridge
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
What are the mental health conditions that are common among adolescents and what are the risk factors for the onset and persistence of these conditions during adolescence?
Why is adolescence a peak time for the onset of several mental health conditions?
What is the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of adolescents?
Have outcomes for the mental health of adolescents changed over time?
What is the relationship between mental health and educational attainment in adolescence?
Prevalence
Global Burden of Disease
Function
Lecture 5 - Learning in Adolescence
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Emily Towner
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Title
Discuss the evidence that adolescent learning is different from adult learning.
Palminteri, S., & Pessiglione, M. (2017). Opponent Brain Systems for Reward and Punishment Learning. In Decision Neuroscience (pp. 291–303).
Larsen B, Luna B. (2018). Adolescence as a neurobiological critical period for the development of higher-order cognition. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 94:179-195.
Lecture 6 - Social Media and Adolescence
Dr. Amy Orben, MRC CBU, Cambridge
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
Discuss the evidence that social media affects wellbeing in adolescence.
Reviews and Perspectives
Boyd, D. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.
Core Studies
Measurement Debate
Policy Debate
Neuroscientific Approaches
Historical Takes
Cyberbullying
Lecture 7 - Adolescent Social Development – Brain and Behaviour
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
How might adolescent brain development contribute to social and emotional behaviour at this time of life?
Mentalising abilities are fully developed by the age of 5 years. Discuss.
How does puberty play a role in social brain development?
What is neuroplasticity? How might it influence social brain development?
What changes in social behaviour occur during this period?
How might we know if adolescence is a sensitive period for social development? What evidence would suggest this?
Why might mental and neural “flexibility” during adolescence be important?
How might the social context influence adolescent brain and behaviour development?
What can neuroimaging techniques tell us about the development of social cognition?
Background
Face processing - Behaviour
Face processing - Brain
Mentalising and social decision making - REVIEWS
Mentalising and social decision making - Behaviour
Mentalising and social decision making - Brain
Lecture 8 - Development of Executive Functions in Adolescence - Brain and Behaviour
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
*=essential
†=recommended
Suggested Essay Titles
What are executive functions and how do they develop across adolescence?
Discuss the evidence that cognitive development is not limited to childhood.