Anxiety is Part of
Growing Up.
We're working to understand it better.
We study how the developing brain and body shape anxiety in kids and teens, so we can match each person with support and treatment that meet their needs.
What if
the brain's alarm system
starts with what we see?
For a long time, scientists believed one small part of the brain, the amygdala, was almost entirely responsible for spotting danger and triggering fear.
Our research tells a more interesting story:
The visual system, the part of the brain that processes what we see, plays its own active role in noticing potential threats.
Understanding how that system develops in children is opening up new ways to think about anxiety altogether.
Psychiatric Research in internalizing Symptoms & Sensory Maturation
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Psychiatric Research in internalizing Symptoms & Sensory Maturation .
Our Approach
Feeling anxious is part of being human, and it shows up often during childhood and the teen years.
It's okay to feel that way.
Our work is about understanding why those feelings happen, so they don't have to stick around longer than they need to.
Questions We're Asking Right Now
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Sensory Brain Development & Anxiety
When a child looks at a face, how does their brain decide whether it's safe or worth worrying about?
We follow children over time with brain imaging to find out.
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Puberty, Body & Mental Health
As the body changes quickly during puberty, does the brain's internal sense of the body keep pace?
We study this directly with teens aged 11 to 15.
Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All
Why our work matters
Anxiety and depression often look similar from the outside but they may work differently in the brain, and they don't respond to the same treatments .
Our long-term goal is to help build a future where support for anxious kids and teens is more precise, so families and clinicians have better, more personalized options.