Latest News
July 2026
Congratulations to Junxuan Zhao for presenting her research at the Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience (AS4SAN) Conference and receiving an AS4SAN Travel Award!
Junxuan presented findings from our randomised controlled trial, “Evidence for causal effects of parenting intervention on adolescent emotion regulation and brain effective connectivity.” Using dynamic causal modelling of fMRI data, this study provides evidence that an emotion-focused parenting intervention can influence emotion-related brain connectivity and support emotion regulation in adolescent girls at risk for internalising difficulties.
Congratulations to Leah Liu for a fantastic presentation at AS4SAN as well! Super interesting work showing specific trajectories of perinatal depressive symptoms linked to poor infant neurodevelopment, and breast milk miRNA as a potential mechanism.
June 2026
A highlight of ISSBD 2026 was our symposium on how parenting and the caregiving environment shape child and adolescent development.
Our speakers showcased a range of innovative approaches - from randomised controlled trials and longitudinal twin studies to large population datasets - to better understand the mechanisms through which caregiving environments influence emotional, neurobiological, and cognitive development.
Many thanks to our speakers and everyone who contributed to the discussion.
April 2026
Congratulations to Dr Sylvia Lin for receiving the 2025 Mendelsohn Student Award (Clinical Category).
The Mendelsohn is a prestigious award open to doctoral students in Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, established in honour of eminent neuroscientist and previous Director of The Florey, Professor Frederick Mendelsohn AO FAA.
October 2025
In a world-first Australian study, we showed that helping parents to better recognise and respond to emotions in themselves and their children can measurably change how their adolescent children’s brains develop, and improve their mental health.
This study, led by Sylvia Lin and published in JAMA Paediatrics, investigated whether an emotion-focused program delivered to parents could impact brain function in their children (aged 10 to 12), through a randomised clinical trial of 70 girls, who experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression, and their mothers.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to analyse the teens’ brains at the start of the trial and again six months later. The teens whose mothers participated in the parenting program showed changes in the lateral prefrontal cortex, the brain’s “control centre” that supports emotion regulation. These brain changes were in turn linked with improved mental health in the teens.
We hope the study will contribute to a broader cultural shift where emotions are understood, valued, and can be openly discussed – to not only support healthy brain development in teens, but to also strengthen family connections.
New research, based on a nationally representative sample of 3500 participants aged 16-24 from the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment Study, and led by Dhatsayini Rattambige, examined the link between problematic drinking in young adulthood and their earlier experiences of abuse or neglect, or non-maltreatment adversities in childhood. Young people who experience multiple types of maltreatment in childhood were found to have a 55% higher rate of problematic alcohol use compared with those who do not experience abuse.
Read more in the media release HERE
Read the publication "The Impact of Child Maltreatment and Adverse Childhood Experiences on Problematic Alcohol Use in a Nationally Representative Survey of Youth" HERE
September 2025
Our new paper, led by Lucy Zhang and Daniel Liontos, provides an overview of how early parent–child bonds are linked to brain development👶🏽🧠
Read the full review here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-025-00545-3
Congratulations to Lucy Zhang on being awarded a 2025 Deans Award for Excellence in Graduate Research! A truly significant and well-deserved achievement 🎉👏🏼
Lucy's thesis investigated the psychosocial and neurobiological factors that promote resilience to childhood adversity during adolescence. She identified neural patterns uniquely associated with resilience, and demonstrated how subsequent stress and supportive social relationships influence adolescent mental health, offering insights to inform prevention and early intervention efforts for at-risk youth 🧠
May 2025
New paper by our team published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, suggesting the presence of brain changes prior to the onset of depressive disorders in adolescents and emerging adults.
April 2025
Congratulations to Sylvia Lin, who gave the completion seminar for her PhD thesis!
"Understanding the role of parenting and family environment on adolescent brain function and mental health"
March 2025
In a new paper led by Junxuan Zhao, we find evidence to suggest that maternal emotion socialisation behaviours influence adolescent emotion regulation ability. Our findings also provide insight into reporter bias.
2024
We celebrated the completion of the Tuning in to Teens' Brains study, which investigated whether the way parents respond to their adolescent's emotions influences adolescent brain function.
Congratulations to alumni member, Dr. Divyangana Rakesh, who has recently received a New Investigator Research Grant from the (UK) Medical Research Council, and a Brain & Behavior Foundation Young Investigator Award!
Our vision is that our research will contribute in a meaningful way to understanding and treating mental health problems in young people, improving outcomes now and for future generations.