Brain Development Related Content

Just How Does Drinking Affect the Teenage Brain?

Studies at McLean Hospital and elsewhere have shown that alcohol affects the brains of adolescents in profound and dangerous ways. During the teenage and early adult years, the brain is still developing, making it more vulnerable to alcohol than the adult brain. Moreover, research indicates that the...

Blood Vessel Development’s Role in Psychiatric Disorders

For decades, scientists have known that gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a key factor in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. But recent discoveries in the Angiogenesis and Brain Development Laboratory of Anju Vasudevan, PhD, have literally opened a new pathway. Disruptions in prenatal...

The Essence of Adolescence: Examining Addiction in the Teenage Brain

When Marisa M. Silveri, PhD , director of McLean Hospital’s Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health, gives community presentations on the effects of alcohol and drug use on the adolescent brain, she refers to herself as a “neuroscience interpreter.” Speaking to hundreds of...