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
- Our authored article in The Conversation
- Webinar recording
- Research papers in NeuroImage and in Futures
- News coverage in Smithsonian magazine, Discover, and BBC Science Focus
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.
Latest updates
News and research findings from our youth mental health research program
Research reveals cyberbullying is pushing teenage girls towards cosmetic procedures
Adolescent females subjected to appearance-related cyberbullying are more likely to feel ashamed of their bodies, a desire to change their appearance and suffer eating disorder symptoms, according to new UniSC research.
Brain changes could predict mental distress in first year of high school
By looking closely at the brain, we may be able to identify which first-year high school students are more prone to psychological distress, new research has found.
What the future of youth mental health care might look like, as brain study reaches milestone
As the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS) turns 5, Professor Daniel Hermens from UniSC's Thompson Institute has published research suggesting the future of preventative mental health could lie in giving 12-year-olds brain scans.
Brain links to children’s anxiety: study results
MRI scans have shown that practising mindfulness can help rewire the brain connectivity of pre-teens with anxiety and attention issues, in new UniSC Thompson Institute research.
Researchers find adolescent cyberbullies also more likely to be victims – but that’s not all
Early adolescents who engage in cyberbullying are more likely to become victims, according to new research from the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Changing Minds: How a teacher-turned-neuroscientist is helping teenage brains
Guidance counsellor-turned neuroscientist returns to the classroom, to deliver a pilot program shaping healthy teenage brains.
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