Dr Liat Levita
Neural models of adolescence and neurodevelopmental disorders: Developmental affective, cognitive, and mental health neuroscience
My Developmental Adolescent Neuroscience Lab integrates methods of behavioural psychology and brain imaging (EEG and fMRI) to understand the mechanisms underlying changes in cortical plasticity, emotion, behaviour, and mental health during adolescence and in neurodevelopmental disorders. Adolescence is a prolonged period in development stretching from puberty until the mid-twenties, and our work focuses on both normative and non-normative development. We also investigate the effect of early life stress on well-being at different developmental times points and mental health pathologies, such as anxiety. Methods in the lab include neuroimaging, psychophysiology and behavioural testing. We use a translational approach, and some potential projects will involve collaboration with other behavioural neuroscience researchers that are a part of Sussex Neuroscience, using rodent models of adolescence in both a forward and a backward translational way to study human adolescent development and well-being.
Rotation projects will focus on adolescent brain function and well-being, key data/tools that could be used would be EEG, fMRI, Psychophysiology (measures of heart rate and EDR) and endocrine function (e.g., cortisol).
For a PhD in the lab, it is important that we discuss your interests and ideas and how they complement and extend the goals of the research in the lab and the methods we use. The aim is to jointly create an impactful project that you are passionate about, advance your research skill set, and lead to high quality and high-impact publications. I would be very happy to talk with you about any potential projects and the work in our lab, so do get in touch.
Some PhD projects currently available; also very happy to discuss your own ideas, and co-supervision with behavioural neuroscience faculty at Sussex (rodent models).
1. Neural mechanisms underlying adaptive and maladaptive adolescent responses to threat: Translational fear conditioning and extinction
2. Examining glutamate dependent cortical plasticity during adolescence- Focusing on neural mechanisms that be associated with either adaptive or maladaptive adolescent development
3. Examining glutamate dependent cortical plasticity – Developing a biomarker for autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder
Key references
- Linton & Levita (2021). Potentiated perceptual neural responses to learned threat during Pavlovian fear acquisition and extinction in adolescents. Dev Sci. 2021 Sep;24(5):e13107. doi: 10.1111/desc.13107.
- Gyurkovics M and Levita L (2021). Dynamic Adjustments of Midfrontal Control Signals in Adults and Adolescents. Cerebral Cortex, 31(2), 795-808. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhaa258
- Aytemur A and Levita L (2021). Neural correlates of implicit agency during the transition from adolescence to adulthood: An ERP study Neuropsychologia 158, 107908
- Ellis R, Milne E & Levita L (2021) Reduced visual cortical plasticity in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Res Bull. Doi: https: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2021.01.019
- Howsley, P., & Levita, L. (2017) Anticipatory representations of reward and threat in perceptual areas from preadolescence to late adolescence. Dev Cogn Neurosci. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.03.001
- Heller, A. S., & Casey, B. (2016). The neurodynamics of emotion: delineating typical and atypical emotional processes during adolescence. Developmental Science, 19(1), 3-18. doi:10.1111/desc.12373
Visit Liat's Google Scholar for a full list of publications.
Developmental Adolescent Neuroscience Lab website