Screen time concerns are everywhere, but it's not just how much time young people spend on screens, it's how they use them. In this conversation, we explore whether differences in brain development during childhood can predict addictive patterns of screen use in early adolescence. Using data from the ABCD Study, Dr. Kardan's team found that delayed cortical maturation at ages 9-10 predicted addictive screen use two years later, with videogaming showing the strongest association. We discuss what cortical maturation means, why reward processing told a different story, and what these findings mean for parents, clinicians, and policymakers.

Paper:

The roles of delayed cortical maturation and lower anticipatory reward activation in predicting addictive screen use in youth

DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.03.012

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This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

Pregnancy transforms the brain to prepare for parenthood, but what happens when financial instability disrupts that process? In this conversation, we explore how income losses during pregnancy dampen brain responses to infant cries in the postpartum period, while income gains strengthen neural bonding with one's own baby. We discuss what these findings mean for understanding the neurobiology of parenting, why income instability may matter more than poverty itself, and the implications for supporting families during this critical window.

Paper:

Income Instability During Pregnancy Prospectively Relates to Postpartum Brain Function for Parent–Infant Bonding

DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.03.003

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Biological Psychiatry

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science

Instagram: @biologicalpsych

LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry

Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry

This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.

Psychiatric clinical trials have some of the highest failure rates in medicine. In this conversation, we explore how a simple, objective measure, the timing of a patient's speech, can be used to enrich clinical trial samples, nearly doubling drug-placebo effect sizes with half the sample. We discuss what speech latency reveals about schizophrenia symptoms, how this approach worked across 8 languages in a global Phase 3 trial, and what it means for the future of psychiatric drug development.

Paper:

A Single, Interpretable Vocal Biomarker for Enriching Antipsychotic Clinical Trials

DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.11.025

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Biological Psychiatry

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science

Instagram: @biologicalpsych

LinkedIn: Biological Psychiatry

Bluesky: Biological Psychiatry

This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. The views expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, its family of journals, or its editors. © 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry. All rights reserved, including those for text and data mining or use in AI systems.