On 8 July 2026, ACAMH will host a workshop, Understanding the Adolescent Brain: From Research to Real-World Practice.
We caught up with one of the contributors – Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS, Chair of Psychology in the Social Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group – about the topic itself, her career, and her hopes for the event.
What led you to specialise in psychology, and in particular developmental cognitive neuroscience?
My interest in psychology began at secondary school after attending a talk by Professor Peter Bryant on dyslexia. Soon after, I was fortunate to do work experience with Professor Uta Frith in London.
At university, while studying experimental psychology, I became especially interested in the relationship between the brain and behaviour. I went on to complete a PhD in neuroscience, and continued studying symptoms of psychosis during postdoctoral work.
With support from a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, I shifted my research focus from adult psychosis to typical adolescent brain development. Developmental cognitive neuroscience has been my main area of research for the past 23 years.
Working with patients with schizophrenia led me to question why symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions often emerge in late adolescence or early adulthood. I became interested in how adolescent brain development might differ in young people who develop psychosis, compared with those who do not. At the time (in the early 2000s), most textbooks suggested the human brain stops developing by mid-childhood, but emerging research indicated that brain development continues through adolescence.
What do people get wrong about the adolescent brain?
Youths have long been stereotyped as impulsive and irrational. Criticism of young people’s behaviour and attitudes dates back to ancient philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle, and these stereotypes persist today in media portrayals of adolescence.
Neuroscience and developmental psychology paint a more nuanced picture. Adolescence is a crucial stage of development during which the brain is especially sensitive to social experiences. Young people tend to be especially influenced by peers and more likely to take risks in social settings. They are also actively developing their identity and independence. Rather than viewing adolescent behaviour as problematic, we should recognise it as part of a natural and adaptive developmental process.
What examples can you give of systems or services not being set up with the reality of the adolescent brain in mind?
There is an evidence-based argument that schools often start too early for many teenagers. During puberty, the body clock shifts by around two hours, meaning adolescents naturally fall asleep and wake up later. Early school start times can therefore force teenagers to learn during what is effectively their biological night, affecting concentration, mood and sleep, and contributing to ‘social jetlag’.
Also, schools rarely teach young people about their own brain development. This is a missed opportunity to help teenagers understand that many of the emotional and social changes they experience are part of a normal biological process that will stabilise.
Thinking about mental health services, around 75% of mental health conditions emerge before the age of 24, yet many mental health services still impose a sharp transition from child to adult care at 18. This does not reflect the reality that the brain continues to develop and remain highly adaptable well into the twenties, and does not reflect the vast individual differences in development.
How can a better understanding of the teen brain transform services/treatments?
A better understanding of the teenage brain could transform services and treatments by shifting the focus away from seeing adolescence as a problem stage that needs to be managed, and towards recognising it as a sensitive period of neurodevelopment.
In practical terms, this could lead to earlier and more targeted interventions, designed specifically for adolescent developmental needs – rather than adapted from adult services. A better understanding of teenage development supports approaches that make use of social context, peer influence and identity formation, which are particularly powerful during this stage of life.
What have been the most important recent advances in our understanding of the teen brain?
Several major advances over the past 25 or so years have transformed our understanding of the teenage brain.
First, brain imaging techniques, particularly MRI, have made it possible to study the living adolescent brain over time. Longitudinal studies have shown that the brain continues to undergo substantial structural and functional change well beyond childhood. During adolescence, the brain is refining its connections while also improving the speed and efficiency of communication between regions.
Another advance is the understanding that reward and social brain systems are especially active during adolescence. This might help explain the increased sensitivity to peer influence, novelty and risk-taking in social contexts.
Research has highlighted the importance of individual differences, showing that adolescent brain development varies widely between individuals, depending on both genetics and environmental experience.
And what do you think are going to be the next advances in research in this area?
While we now have a good understanding of average developmental trajectories, there is growing recognition that there are large individual differences in timing, rate and pattern of brain maturation. A challenge for the field is moving from group-level findings about brain development to a better understanding of individual differences, and what they mean for behaviour and mental health outcomes.
We know that many psychiatric conditions emerge during adolescence, but we still lack a deep understanding of which young people are most at risk, and why. This has led to a focus on developing predictive models that integrate brain imaging, genetics, environmental experiences and behaviour.
One of the most important advances is likely to be in prevention. Rather than waiting for mental health conditions to develop, the goal is to identify early signs of vulnerability and intervene during the period when the brain is still highly plastic. This raises both scientific and ethical questions about prediction, labelling and how best to support young people without pathologising normal variation in development.
Where next?
Join us at out webinar,Understanding the Adolescent Brain: From Research to Real-World Practice.