Discoveries for a better tomorrow
Could brain scanning to detect risk be in the future of mental healthcare?
Our Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study is the first to show that the uniqueness of an adolescent's brain (their 'brain fingerprint'), detected through MRI, can predict mental health outcomes.
This unveils a potential future in which we screen for mental health risk and intervene early to reduce or prevent impacts on young people.
Find out more
- Article in The Conversation
- Webinar recording
- Research papers in NeuroImage and in Futures
Youth mental health studies
Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study
An ambitious, world-first study of the brain and its exciting changes through adolescence.
The longitudinal study works with young participants from the age of 12 through to 17 years
The brain, gut, early life stress and anorexia nervosa
NOW RECRUITING: Help us understand how early experiences shape biology, and risk and maintaining factors for anorexia nervosa.
Cyberbullying impact research
The first study to use functional MRI to understand the impacts of cyberbullying on young people.
Brain Changer school workshops
We visited schools to teach young people five ways to supercharge their brains.
Combatting Anxiousness for Learning Minds (CALM)
Understanding how anxiousness impacts children's attention and how mindfulness can help.
AAIMS: Adolescence study
This UniSC Thompson Institute study is investigating the links between a Mediterranean eating style, the brain and the gut in teenagers with ADHD.
Our research team
Professor Daniel Hermens
Deputy Director | Professor of Youth Mental Health and Neurobiology | Thompson Institute
Dr Amanda Boyes
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Youth Mental Health) - Thompson Institute
Dr Michelle Kennedy
Post Doctoral Research Fellow – Youth Mental Health
Marcella Parker
Research Assistant (Youth Mental Health), Thompson Institute
Shae Rendall
Research Assistant, Thompson Institute
Taliah Prince
Research Assistant