Creighton and UNMC researchers will spend the next four years studying the brain development of 9 to 14-year-olds.
A $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation will fund research in to several projects. It’ll also support the development of the Nebraska Cognitive Neuroscience Training Program.
Dr. Tony Wilson, a professor of pharmacology and neurological sciences at UNMC, is leading the research efforts. He says the brains of nine to 14-year-olds go through many changes during that time.
“Their emotional development increases substantially. Their cognitive development, they become much more advanced, of course, as adolescents. So what we’re hoping to see is that we can identify the changes in the brain that underlie those changes in emotional capacity and cognition.”
Dr. Wilson says large-scale studies of 9 to 14-year-olds haven’t been done. Researchers will use neuroimaging for the brain studies of up to 230 young people.
Dr. Amy Badura Brock, professor of psychology at Creighton, will study whether traumatic childhood experiences impact brain development.
“And if that is the case, we’ll be able to track not only what are the after effects of having a very difficult life experience, but also when that life experience happened and the effect that it had on potential neural development and connectivity.”
Dr. Maya Khanna, who also teaches psychology at Creighton, will study what impact exposure to lead has on development. She says adults who were exposed to lead as children have been found to have less brain volume in areas responsible for attention allocation, decision making, planning, and emotional regulation.
Researchers from New Mexico and Louisiana are also part of the project.