The Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment in Youth Laboratory, also known as the CANDY Lab, is led by Dr. Giorgia Picci. The CANDY Lab focuses on understanding how early life adversity and neurodevelopmental disorders (i.e., autism) shape brain development, puberty, and mental health outcomes. To answer these questions, the team examines multiple levels of biology including hormones, s/fMRI, and MEG. The lab currently has two arms of research investigating 1) how early life stress influences pubertal and neurodevelopment in ways that amplify or mitigate risk for psychopathology and 2) how pubertal factors may differentially influence brain development and mental health functioning in autistic adolescents.