The University of Texas at Dallas’ Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) is expanding the scope of its research on optimizing cognitive health throughout life to include studies with children and teenagers. “Most of the center’s research to this point has included participants from early adulthood through to later life. We’re adding two new research groups that strengthen and extend our mission of understanding cognitive and brain changes throughout the whole lifespan. She studies social development in adolescents, with a focus on neural and psychological mechanisms of learning, thinking and presenting about the self in social contexts. She also studies the effects of deprivation and negative social interactions on social and affective brain development.