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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer

@jenndsn.bsky.social
5.9K followers 718 following 157 posts

dev soc neuro professor @uoregon • studying the changing bodies, brains, & social worlds of adolescents • National Scientific Council on Adolescence • she/her

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Reposted by Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer
Lucinda Sisk @lucindasisk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Delighted to share that this work is now published in JNeurosci! @sfn.org Check out the final version: www.jneurosci.org/content/46/3...
jneurosci.org
Corticolimbic Structure–Function Coupling Is Sensitive to Childhood Adversity and Buffers Adversity-Related Symptoms during Development
Childhood adversity is a potent predictor of mental health problems across the lifespan, and cross-species literature implicates stress-sensitive corticolimbic circuits in adversity-related psychopath...
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Fantastic initiative and new option for open access, affordable developmental science publishing. Really appreciate all the effort that surely went into this - what an amazing contribution to the field this will be!
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Reposted by Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer
moin syed @syeducation.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Gave a talk in my dept. on the OSF transition. I wrote up a rough script of the session, which could be of interest to others. I synthesize existing resources and provide my own perspectives. Comments and corrections welcome! zenodo.org/records/2306...
the header for a paper describing "Life after OSF" #metascience
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Reposted by Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer
clare mccann @clarefmccann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New paper out in Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology!! I had the pleasure of collaborating with a group of experts in puberty, adolescence, quantitative methods & more to create a comprehensive guide to measuring & modeling pubertal development over time: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Adriana also pointed out that "the influx of opportunity is time-sensitive - plasticity isn’t forever, you can’t bank it." Adolescence is a golden window to invest in youth because they have the motivational systems to leverage those investments.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The room was captivated hearing Rey Ortega tell his success story about the supports he received from Southwestern College's youth justice program enabling him to attain multiple degrees, graduate to a less restrictive placement, and transfer to SDSU! www.swccd.edu/programs-and...
swccd.edu
Restorative Justice
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Fabulous #Flux2026 local symposium on connecting neuroscience evidence to real-world impacts on youth justice organized by Kathy Do & Julie Schneider! We heard from Adriana Galvan @cda-adolescence.bsky.social about the neuroscience and then multiple practitioner perspectives on youth justice.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
But I was most inspired by the question he posed - "How do we find joy in the work we do, knowing how difficult the task is?" - and his heartfelt answer - “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a [person’s] heart.” Camus (1942). Thank you and HUGE congrats Brenden! 👏 #Flux2026
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Brenden encouraged us to think about moving from heuristics and communicating in words, to more precise mathematical models. He also described his amazing contributions and successes with humility and transparency about setbacks along the way, a la Sisyphus' boulder rolling back down the mountain.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
In yesterday's simply phenomenal Young Investigator Award talk, Brenden Tervo-Clemmens @tervoclemmensb.bsky.social portrayed several things beautifully. First, challenges to reproducibility are challenges to translation. Our work needs to be robust to have value in improving developmental outcomes.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
As investigators we need to think about whether we are interested in between- or within-person questions and processes! Tradeoff of using resources for N (sample size) or T (measurements). 2/ www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
A Manifesto on Psychology as Idiographic Science: Bringing the Person Back Into Scientific Psychology, This Time Forever
Psychology is focused on variation between cases (interindividual variation). Results thus obtained are considered to be generalizable to the understanding and explanation of variation within sing...
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
An outstanding Dissertation Award talk by Matt Mattoni @mattmattoni.bsky.social on heterogeneity and idiographic (vs. nomothetic) approaches in developmental cognitive neuroscience. He made his case very well - and bonus: increased everyone's vocabulary! 👏 See more @ 1/ doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
doi.org
Functional connectivity heterogeneity and consequences for clinical and cognitive prediction: Stage 2 registered report
Abstract. Functional connectivity is frequently used to assess dynamic brain functioning and predict individual differences in behavioral outcomes, such as psychopathology. Inferences from functional ...
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Also check out the NASEM @nationalacademies.org guide on combating misinformation: www.nationalacademies.org/topics/misin... 2/
nationalacademies.org
Misinformation
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
How to combat misinformation as scientists? Dr. Lewenstein suggests a few tips: Begin with a story! That is a powerful way of communicating. It could be a story about the damage that misinformation does. DON’T REPEAT the misinfo. Start with the truth. #Flux2026 Public Policy Symposium 1/
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Consider potential harms, and have an equity focus (up front, not as an afterthought). Be mindful of policy windows. We have a lot of knowledge, expertise, and skills to help inform policy. The way you communicate science - even in a peer-reviewed article - has implications for policy.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Policy briefs should be 2 pages, with an "at a glance" summary of 3 points at the top. Dr. Díaz-Laura suggests this should include policy "considerations" and not "recommendations." We need to be honest brokers of the science - being seen as advocates can derail your standing as scientists.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Guadalupe Díaz-Laura @ CSU Fullterton shares tips for developing skills about communicating developmental science to policymakers. Points out policymakers care about what the science shows, what we do know; scientists are typically oriented towards what we don't know. We need to reorient ourselves!
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Bruce described 3 key issues in #scicomm, tensions between: audience & strategy deficit model information/delivering information & dialogue basic engagement & full participation of audience
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Bruce Lewenstein, sci comm expert @ Cornell: "Communication is the essence of science. What you do in the lab… meh, OK. When you communicate it to someone else, you’re not putting it out there for someone else to test. The testing you do in the lab is to identify the reliable knowledge.” #Flux2026
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
And I love his tactic for ✨ Making Open Science Feel OK: The Reproducabilibuddy System ✨ What is it? At predefined checkpoints the "buddy" (typically second author) reproduces the results of the first author - WITHOUT talking to them. An inspiring practice we'd do well to employ field-wide.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Yes, the S-A axis was a big and important theme - but not the only one. I especially appreciated Ted's shout outs for open science and informatics contributions to his lab's work. "Different phases of science can reinforce each other."
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Ted Satterthwaite's brilliant #Flux2026 Linda Spear Mid-Career Award talk made it crystal clear why he won this honor. We all know he is a productive genius but to hear it condensed in a thirty-minute overview was kind of mindblowing. So well-deserved! 👏 @ted-satterthwaite.bsky.social
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Most mammals do not pair-bond. Genetic change needed to reactivate that bonding system. Compelling case for human capacity to create intense pair bonds during adolescence. Falling in love can also be a metaphor: with literature, music, dance, sports, etc.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Puberty in humans seems to reactivate mammalian neurobiological systems for mother-infant bonding. Creating a capacity to fall in love, to form high-intensity enduring social bonds in adolescents.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Mattering is the felt signal of social value, earned through genuine contribution. When youth find this signal in authentic prosocial experience, a positive spiral becomes possible. (Important to think about when that signal is lacking and the destructive negative spirals that could follow.)
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Cooperation and competition are entangled, not opposed. This allows them to learn to do things that matters to others. For more, see this paper. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Wanting to matter and learning to care: A neurodevelopmental window of opportunity for (Pro) social learning?
Wanting to matter—to feel socially recognized, appreciated, and capable of actions that benefit others—represents a fundamental motivation in human de…
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
How those changes create a specific second window of learning. When humans learned to live everywhere, about 70,000 years ago. Being able to adapt flexibly to different environments - adolescents are rapid adopters and innovators of cultural change!
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Feedback loop requires real, authentic affective appraisal. "Their bullshit detectors are so good!" The insula is a key part of this integrative hub for FEELING social value. It isn't just computing it. @lucinauddin.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Social salience at puberty: what is actually being amplified? Sensitive to what matters most for learning during this window = social value. This isn't just negative, but positive - respect, prestige, etc.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One example: sickness behavior. It is a shift in motivations and behavior. We learn how to behave when we're sick from experiences, and hypothalamus turns that on, connects with insular cortex.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Gently, but provocatively: "When we assume that if something is linked to puberty it has to be correlated with hormones, we are being very naive!" Because the beginning of puberty is happening THERE, in hypothalamus. 2000 GnRH neurons beginning all the action to > puberty > gonads.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Pay more attention to these systems: Hypothalamus. It has so many essential functions, monitor our internal state for health, monitors external environment for feedback. Ability to influence behavior is so complex. About a dozen nuclei, 30-40 subregions. Interconnected systems!
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Expresses almost the same genes as a human hypothalamus, expresses a 9-amino acid chain peptide hormone that is almost identical to oxytocin. This is ATTACHMENT. It's a social bond to a ROCK, but... they are attaching, when they eat their brain.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
They have dopamine, serotonin, and a proto hypothalamus. The D2 signal is like, I got plenty of fuel, KEEP EXPLORING. As it gets more feedback that it's a positive environment (D1 signal). Value computation: what's a good home, D1/D2 balance decides when to attach. Then eats its own brain.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
These sea squirts are capable of movement, behavior, and decision-making! WHY evolve a brain for 24 hours? It makes ONE high-stakes decision, where to attach itself to a rock. They engage in value-baed decision-making. A light sensor, a gravity sensor, olfactory sensing for conspecifics, and touch.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What a gem. Only Ron would now weave in the evolutionary developmental biology of tunicates: sea squirts. They are our closest living relatives, common ancestor, to fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and humans. Why? For 24 hours they have a juvenile form with brain, eye, organ, etc.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What is it about ✨ puberty ✨ ? It reorganizes motivational priorities and experiential learning priorities by amplifying the salience of social feedback/evaluation and wanting to contribute. Bridges the evolutionary function and the neural system changes we need to understand.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
But this creates a drive for adolescents to contribute! Deeply motivated to gain social capital by contributing. Because humans everywhere take a long time to gain adult-level proficiency, this raises stakes for youth to find, learn, and develop ways to contribute - to kin, but also to community.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The coevolution of intelligence and longevity. Anyone with adolescents know that individual caloric debt is massive in this period! Extractive foraging and hunting is hard. This requires heavy investing in youth with expectation of later returns. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
The emergence of humans: The coevolution of intelligence and longevity with intergenerational transfers | PNAS
Two striking differences between humans and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, are the size of our brains (larger by a factor ...
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Three aspects of formative social/relational learning that are DISTINCT to human adolescence, which provide a bridge to integrative questions where our field can advance. 1: There is evolutionary pressure for intergenerational resource transfers related to extended adolescence.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
In fission-fusion adolescence, your competitors are also potential alliance partners. Forming bonds, alliances, and prestige are necessary to gain status and social capital. That complex dynamically-changing learning context with amplified uncertainty stress-tests prediction models.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Striking similarities: puberty is a pivotal inflection point, where the social motivations change, and they encounter fundamentally new social challenges. In most other mammals, in contrast, puberty transforms them from juvenile social play into high-stakes competition for mates and territory.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
For a write-up of a "non-meeting" NIH meeting on this in January 2025 (a different kind of hurricane), see this: www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
What animals can teach us about the challenges of being a teen
Researchers seek common patterns in adolescence, in chimps, elephants, and dolphins
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Recognize individuals they havent seen for days/weeks; track social status, alliances, relationships, trust that can change dynamically for individual and social identity. All these species have long post-juvenile period, large neocortex, high social intelligence; and cultural knowledge/skills.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Humans are in a limited set of species with very different kinds of social-relational learning because they are "fission-fusion" societies with flexible bonds requiring complex cooperation and alliances. Different from stable group species. What they have to learn is so unique!...
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ron pivots to An evolutionary perspective on the purpose of adolescence, as a time of social learning. Highlighting the value of having partnerships with researchers who study these questions in other animal systems. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Puberty initiates a unique stage of social learning and development prior to adulthood: Insights from studies of adolescence in wild chimpanzees
In humans, puberty initiates a period of rapid growth, change, and formative neurobehavioral development. Brain and behavior changes during this matur…
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Shout out given to @cda-adolescence.bsky.social and our affiliated National Scientific Council on Adolescence as part of his "teams of teams" leading to actionable insights about adolescence and communicating the science to effectuate change.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"When you don't have enough time to prepare for the talk, you have to speak from the heart." 💚 #Flux2026 @fluxsociety.bsky.social
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ron's about 5 minutes in and I can already tell, he's going to drop some inspiration and intellectual lightbulb 💡 moments, to challenge and fuel the next two decades of work! A history lesson on the 2003 NYAS: thanks to Hurricane Isabel, Ron had the opportunity to spontaneously reframe adolescence.
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Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer @jenndsn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ron Dahl gives the Huttenlocher Lecture #Flux2026. Very few other scientists have had such a profound impact on our approach to studying adolescent development, tracing back to his pivotal 2004 keynote/paper on adolescence as a time of opportunity. nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1196/...
nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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