This episode features a conversation with Dr. Kathryn Mills, associate professor at the University of Oregon and Director of the Developing Brain in Context Lab. Kate and her colleagues examine how social environments influence the development of social cognition during the transition into adolescence using a blend of methods, including behavioral observation and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. 

In part one of their conversation, Kate and Jason talk about the Developing Brain in Context Lab at the University of Oregon, what it does, the people who work there, and its evolving research interests, the concept of co-created developmental science - the engagement of community partners directly in the research process - the unique features of brain development during adolescence versus other periods of human development, and how the brain is both getting more efficient and stronger during this time period.

In part two, they talk about what’s happening in the brain when educators and youth workers and parents witness some of the hallmark developmental behaviors in adolescents like identity formation and agency, what kinds of learning approaches and environments are necessary to best foster positive brain development among youth, the considerable variability of changes in the developing brains in adolescents and the intersection of those changes in the brain with all of the changes that are happening in educational and youth development settings at the same time, the current research on the effects of technology and social media on adolescent brain development as well as the connection of developing social cognition and mental health, and the specific research interests of the Lab going forward.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Developing Brain in Context Lab
  • Published research
  • Current research projects
• “BrainAGE as a Measure of Maturation During Early Adolescence,” Lucy Whitmore, Sarah Weston, and Kathryn Mills, Imaging Neuroscience (2023) 1: 1–21
• “Co-Creating Developmental Science,” Lucy Whitmore and Kathryn Mills, Infant and Child Development, October 26, 2021.
• Equity-Centered Community Design (ECCD)™️, Creative Reaction Lab
• The Blakemore Lab
• Center for Open Science
• Oxford Internet Institute