About the project
Adolescence, the transition period between childhood and adulthood, is a time of dramatic developmental changes in body and behaviour, including changes in the brain and cognitive functions. A hallmark feature of this protracted human neurocognitive development is the development of self-monitoring and -regulation functions, and underlying brain systems. As we mature, we change and improve how we monitor, process, and adjust our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, including errors we make. Individual differences in these functions and their development is believed to be important for learning and adaption, but also to be associated with the emergence of mental health problems.
We will conduct a unique project, combining a longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging study, a population cohort study, and a registry study, that will yield new knowledge about self-monitoring and -regulation functions in the adolescent brain, with implications for mental health and education. We will 1) Accurately map the development of self-monitoring and -regulation and associated brain activity across adolescence, 2) Probe how this development is related to changes in brain structure and structural connectivity, 3) Test how early life influences and traits are associated with individual differences in adolescents’ self-regulation functions, and 4) Examine the relevance of these functions for mental health and school performance. We will collect and analyse behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) data, as well as registry data, from a large longitudinal sample of adolescents 12-18 years old. This will then be linked with data from the same participants from a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study and the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort study (MoBa).
Objectives
The main objectives of the project are to gain novel knowledge about 1) the development of self-monitoring and -regulation and associated brain activity at the individual level in adolescence, 2) the underlying brain structural and structural connectivity mechanisms for this development, 3) how early life influences and traits predicts differences in self-monitoring and -regulation in adolescence, and 4) the role of self-monitoring and -regulation for emerging mental health problems and school performance. Importantly, by combining early-life cohort data, multimodal neuroimaging data, and registry data, the project represents a unique opportunity to track individual developmental paths, all the way from early childhood, via neurocognitive systems in adolescence, to positive and negative individual adaptation at the brink of adulthood.
Outcomes
Academic impact: First, the results will yield new knowledge about how brain functional and structural development are interrelated during adolescence. Second, the results will advance theory on the early-life sources of self-monitoring and -regulation and on how these functions may underlie emerging mental health problems. Third, the results will give important new knowledge about the role of self-monitoring and -regulation in learning.
Societal impact: In line with the UN sustainable development goals of good health and well-being (#3) and quality education (#4), the long-term goals of the project are that the anticipated results will impact and improve the clinical care of youth with mental health problems and the educational context for adolescents. We aim to do so by contributing to new knowledge about the development of neurocognitive systems critical for learning and threat-evaluation, and by improving our understanding of individual-level risk, developmental trajectories, and consequences.
Financing
The project is financed as a Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal by the Research Council of Norway.