Institute of Child Health

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Behavioural & Brain Sciences Unit

Welcome to the Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit (BBSU)

The BBSU comprises several inter-related teams engaged in theoretically novel research into social cognition, and aetiology, epidemiology and prevention in child and adolescent mental health.  Major interests include social communication disorders and eating disorders.

Current research in the Unit falls into five key areas:

1. Autism Spectrum Disorders: clinical, neurocognitive and genetic perspectives.
2. Genetic and neural influences on socially adaptive behaviour.
3. Sex chromosome abnormalities and epigenetics.
4. Aetiology and epidemiology of eating disorders.
5. Epidemiology and prevention in adolescent mental health.

The BBSU adopts an interdisciplinary approach and brings together researchers with backgrounds in psychology, neuroscience, genetics, economics, epidemiology and clinical practice. A wide range of methodologies and technologies are used, from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Event Related Potentials (ERP) and eye-tracking to interview and questionnaire analysis.

Internal collaborators include members of the Units of Imaging and Biophysics and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and we are closely linked to the Social Communication Disorders Team from the National Centre for High Functioning Autism at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

To find out more about current projects being conducted within the BBSU, please refer to our Research pages and see the Academic Profiles linked to from our Unit Staff List.