Greg Knowles
University of Birmingham, UK
Biography
Gregory J Knowles is a 4th year medical student studying at the University of Birmingham, UK. Considering a career in psychiatry, he has completed an intercalated BMedSci in Psychological Medicine. Inspired by the work of renowned developmental neuroscientists (Casey et al., 2008; Steinberg, 2008), he orientated his year towards the analysis of research into adolescent social neuroscience. He aimed to investigate the neural components underlying well-recognised risky tendencies during this period. Previous study in this area focused predominantly on the utilisation of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Employing a different approach, he applied voxel-based morphometric analysis to evaluate the association between risk-propensity and grey and white matter volumes (and hence, maturity). Furthermore, since most risks are taken in the presence of peers, he also investigated the association between peer influence susceptibility and brain structure. His research provides some preliminary findings to build upon in the future.
Abstract
Abstract : Structural brain correlates of adolescent risk-taking and peer influence susceptibility