Pamela Madden
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Psychology
Adolescence brings fast changes in the brain, in thinking and emotion, and often first contact with alcohol, cannabis, tobacco and vaping. Understanding how these experiences shape development requires following many children over many years.
- Fields
Psychology
Neuroscience
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
ABCD Study
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development
adolescent brain development
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Follow and assess children enrolled at the Washington University site of the ABCD Study with brain imaging, cognitive testing, bioassays and health interviews every two years from age 9–10 into young adulthood.
- Track how substance use, including cannabis, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, relates to brain, cognitive and emotional development, using repeated in-person, phone and mobile-app assessments.
- Contribute data to a shared national resource for studying how genes, environment, sleep, screen time and sports injuries shape adolescent mental health and brain development.
More about the research
The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. It has enrolled 11,878 children who were 9–10 years old and will follow them into young adulthood.
Why it matters
Families, schools and public-health agencies need solid data on how adolescent experiences affect growing brains. Long-term measurements in thousands of youth could clarify how cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, vaping, sleep and screen time relate to brain development and mental health. That evidence could inform prevention efforts and define healthy developmental norms.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Neal Doran
University of California-San Diego, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify modifiable social, contextual and individual risk factors that predict e-cigarette initiation and progression in children, using repeated assessments from the ABCD cohort of youth ages 9 to 19.
Erin Thompson
Florida International University, FL·Psychology·Early-career
Examine how exclusionary school discipline, such as suspension, relates to adolescent mental health and substance use in the ABCD Study, accounting for neighborhood, school, behavioral and socioeconomic factors.
Bader Chaarani
University of Vermont, VT·Psychology
Identify how active (video gaming), passive (TV and videos) and mixed (social media, texting, video chatting) screen media activity relate to mental health, cognition and brain development across four ABCD time points.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.