Cat Camacho Scientists to Watch | Science News

Описание: Neuroscientist M. Catalina “Cat” Camacho spends a lot of time playing with kids. They’re not her children, but participants in her research, which looks at how young brains learn to process emotions and how that development relates to mental health.
“Every kid is so different, and I love getting little insights into their worlds,” says Camacho, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “You really do come to appreciate just how much kids grow in such a short amount of time.”
That realization years ago drew her into neuroscience. After Camacho, a first-generation college student, earned a bachelor’s degree, she worked in a laboratory imaging infants’ brains and was shocked at how quickly they changed. Now, she’s continuing that line of research by studying kids while playing games and watching movies with them, even going to their homes to understand their lives.
Camacho is especially interested in the overlap between cognitive development and mental health. “Anxiety and depression are just supercommon,” says Camacho, who now recognizes that her mom struggled with depression during Camacho’s childhood. That drives her research today, which she hopes can inform “how it is that we intervene and when and for who, so that we can best bolster mental health in general.”