North Chicago, Illinois – September 24, 2026 -- Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFU) neuroscientist Nicole Ferrara, PhD, has secured a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how social disruptions, including COVID-19 lockdowns, alter brain development in adolescents.
NIH funds five-year study on amygdala development and social behavior
The project, titled "Social Experience Guides BMA Mediated Social Development," will examine how the basomedial amygdala (BMA) responds to restricted or inconsistent social contact during adolescence and young adulthood. Dr. Ferrara's preliminary data indicate the BMA functions differently during teen and young adult years compared with other brain regions, making it potentially more vulnerable to social disruption.
Researcher links pandemic-era isolation to rising mental health disorders
Ferrara noted that total isolation is rare; more commonly, adolescents experience restricted or inconsistent social contact, which her team is now studying for its neural impact. She said data from the COVID-19 lockdown period connect these interruptions to rising rates of anxiety, depression, and social dysregulation.
RFU's Brain Science Institute positions study within stress-resilience research center
The research operates under RFU's Center for Neurobiology of Stress Resilience and Psychiatric Disorders, part of the university's Brain Science Institute. Janice Urban, PhD, interim executive vice president of research and center director, said the work targets a critical developmental window because many mental health disorders first manifest during adolescence and early adulthood. Urban stated the funded studies are expected to generate data usable for developing therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing maladaptive brain changes and subsequent psychiatric disorders.
Behavioral consequences span withdrawal to substance abuse
Documented effects of social disruption include withdrawal from friends and family, aggression, slowed social maturation, poor school performance, and substance abuse. Researchers cite the psychosocial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic as a major driver behind the steep increase in neuropsychiatric disorder rates among adolescents now entering early adulthood.
Ferrara joined RFU in 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and became an assistant professor in September 2022, holding faculty positions in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Center for Neurobiology of Stress Resilience and Psychiatric Disorders.