The Adolescent Brain Subject of Long-Term Federal Study
Every educator or parent who’s wondered what’s going on in the heads of moody, socially obsessed teenagers may soon get an answer. The National Institutes of Health will dedicate $300 million over the next decade to launch the largest, most comprehensive study to date of how children’s brains develop during adolescence.
The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, or ABCD, will bring together researchers from nearly two dozen institutions across the country to track the development of 10,000 children, ages 9 and 10, over the next decade.
The project will be the largest longitudinal study to use regular magnetic resonance imaging scans, or MRIs, to track how students’ brain structure and activity changes as they grow, and compare those changes to measures of mental health, academic and social progress and engagement, and risky behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use.
Read the rest of this article here at Education Week.
