Inventing Ourselves (Paperback) - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

* Why it is that many mental illnesses - depression, addiction, schizophrenia - begin during these formative years. And she shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity and opportunity.

Winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Prize 2018. Up to the minute brain science from a world class scientist. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore explains how the adolescent brain transforms as it develops and shapes the adults we become. 'Beautifully written with clarity, expertise and honesty about the most important subject for all of us. I couldn't put it down.' - Professor Robert Winston

Drawing upon her cutting-edge research Professor Blakemore explores:
* What makes the adolescent brain different?
* Why does an easy child become a challenging teenager?
* What drives the excessive risk-taking and the need for intense friendships common to teenagers?
* Why it is that many mental illnesses - depression, addiction, schizophrenia - begin during these formative years.
And she shows that while adolescence is a period of vulnerability, it is also a time of enormous creativity and opportunity.

About the Author

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. She has published over 180 papers in scientific journals, and won multiple major awards for her research, including the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal 2006, the Turin Young Mind & Brain Prize 2013, the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award 2013 and the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize 2015. She was named in The Times Young Female Power List 2014 and was one of only four scientists on the Sunday Times 100 Makers of the 21st Century 2014. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Professor Blakemore has two sons and lives in Hertfordshire. Inventing Ourselves is her first solo book and is the winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2018.