Individual differences in brain development
The human brain undergoes significant structural and functional changes throughout the lifespan. Yet the brain development is not the same for everyone. There are considerable individual differences. For example, researchers have long considered that the brains of gifted children develop differently from those of other children. How do these children differ from other children in brain development? There are also gender differences in behavioral as well as brain measures especially during puberty/adolescence. In addition, the onset of puberty sometimes coincides with the transition from elementary to secondary schools, which may make the school transition particularly challenging for some children. In our research, we address such individual differences in brain developments using psychological experiments, hormone assays and neuroimaging techniques.
Relevant Papers
Clewett, D., Sakaki, M., Huang, R., Nielsen, S. E., & Mather, M. (2017). Arousal amplifies biased competition between high and low priority memories more in women than in men: the role of elevated noradrenergic activity. Psychoneuroendocrinology,80, 80-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.02.022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.02.022 OSF Link Request PDF Article
Sakaki, M. & Mather, M. (2012). How reward and emotional stimuli induce different reactions across the menstrual cycle. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00415.x Request PDF Article
Kandaleft, D., Murayama, K., Roesch, E., & Sakaki, M. (2022) Resting-state functional connectivity does not predict individual differences in the effects of emotion on memory. Scientific Report, 12, 14481. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18543-8 OSF Link
Ezaki, T., Sakaki, M., Watanabe, T., & Masuda, N. (2018). Age-related changes in the ease of dynamical transitions in human brain activity. Human Brain Mapping, 39, 2673–2688. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24033 Request PDF Article
