Developmental Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory

Stuart White, Ph.D., is the Director of the Developmental Clinical Neuroscience (DCN) Laboratory. The DCN Lab seeks to better understand how serious behavioral problems, particularly aggression, develop. Importantly, we want to better understand why trauma and PTSD play a large role triggering serious behavioral problem in some youth relative to other youth. Our work pays particular attention to the neurobiology of serious behavioral problems and trauma. We examine changes in the brain and in endocrine function (hormones) and see how these changes reflect and help us to understand the origins of serious behavioral problems. Notably, since both serious behavioral problems and trauma increase dramatically at puberty, the DCN Lab seeks to understand how changes in neurobiology due to puberty impact the systems involved in both trauma and serious behavioral problems.

The DCN Lab works with healthy teens and youth who have serious behavioral problems (aggression, emotion regulation problems, impulsivity and other mental health/behavioral problems) and/or exposure to traumatic events. Learn more about participating in our study.