As the largest long-term study of brain development and child and adolescent health in the United States, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development SM (ABCD) Study can offer empirical insights relevant for governments, influential think tanks, and other key stakeholders worldwide in establishing guidelines and informing decisions with potential long-term relevance for adolescent health. This review delves into some of the ABCD Study research cited to date by these organizations on important public health topics such as depression and suicidality; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; digital technology, sleep patterns, and physical activity; and prenatal cannabis exposure. Furthermore, it underscores the untapped potential for ABCD Study findings to inform real-world efforts to improve the health and well-being of children and adolescents.
Adolescence is a unique developmental stage, defined by neural reorganisation and a heightened sensitivity to the social environment. Brain maturation is a prolonged process extending well into the twenties, involving microstructural refinements such as axonal myelination and synaptic pruning, which are partly dependent on environmental input. This period of heightened neuroplasticity coincides with a shift toward peer affiliation and increased susceptibility to risk-taking, particularly in social settings. Consequently, adolescent decision-making should be viewed through a social lens, in which the drive to avoid social exclusion and to secure peer acceptance acts as a powerful motivator of behaviour. This framework underscores the importance of social connections and suggests that, conversely, disruptions to these relationships, and in particular social isolation, can be harmful to adolescent development. Studies have demonstrated that even brief periods of social isolation in adolescence can increase reward seeking and reward learning, heighten threat sensitivity and reduce risk perception. The research reviewed in this paper has implications for how young people are treated in the youth justice system. I argue that justice systems should evolve from punitive approaches toward rehabilitative frameworks and age-appropriate legal thresholds grounded in evidence-based insights into the developing adolescent brain and mind.
This paper reviews findings on neurocognitive development provided by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development® study to date. It explores the structure of cognitive processes during the late childhood to early adolescent developmental time frame as well as associations with brain regions and systems that may support such processes. Also reviewed are findings from a wide variety of cognitive processes including general cognitive abilities, memory, inhibitory control, risk and reward processing, language, non-verbal abilities, executive functioning, and cognitive flexibility. The relationships of these aspects of cognition are examined with regard to morphological features of both white and grey matter, and with regard to brain function, more specifically activation and connectivity measures derived from functional MRI, during rest and during tasks. Section summaries and potential future directions are provided at the end of each section. The paper concludes with broad lessons learned from the ABCD® study so far as well as consideration of how future exploration of the data could illuminate a variety of outstanding issues with regard to neurocognitive development.
Background Maternal perinatal psychological distress (e.g., anxiety, depression) is common and has been linked to adverse child behavioural outcomes. Altered brain function provides a potential mechanism through which perinatal distress may impact child behaviour, but specific associations remain unclear. This study investigated associations between perinatal distress, child brain functional connectivity at 2 years, and child behaviour at 2 and 3 years. Methods Neuroimaging and behavioural data were obtained from the Pregnancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic (PdP) study. Maternal distress (anxiety and depression symptoms) was self-reported throughout the perinatal period; analyses included measures from intake survey and 2 years postpartum. Child behaviour at 2 and 3 years was parent-reported using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Resting-state fMRI data was collected at 2 years (n = 62) to quantify connectivity within the default mode, executive control, frontoparietal, and sensorimotor networks. Associations between maternal prenatal and postnatal distress, child functional connectivity, and child behaviour were examined using regression models. Results Postnatal, but not prenatal, distress was associated with lower gross motor scores at 2 years (B = -0.5, T = -2.8, p = 0.005, df = 3517, q = 0.01). Higher distress both prenatally and postnatally was associated with lower ASQ-3 scores at 3 years across all domains (q < 0.05). Child brain connectivity was not related to maternal distress or behaviour. Conclusions Perinatal distress was associated with worse behaviour at 2 and 3 years, although no associations with connectivity were observed, suggesting other pathways may underlie these effects. Nonetheless, these findings highlight the importance of supporting mental health during pregnancy and postnatally to promote healthy child development.
