About the Lab

The Rakesh Lab brings together a multidisciplinary team to understand how childhood experiences — particularly socioeconomic adversity and environmental factors — shape neurodevelopment and mental health in young people. Our research spans developmental cognitive neuroscience, computational approaches, neonatal medicine, and psychology to study both the mechanisms of risk and the pathways to resilience.

Led by Dr. Divyangana Rakesh, our group investigates how inequality influences brain and cognitive development and identifies factors that protect against the effects of adversity. Team members include postdoctoral researchers studying genetic and environmental influences on neurodevelopment, clinicians exploring early life medical and social determinants of child outcomes, and doctoral and undergraduate researchers examining resilience, lifestyle influences, and transitions into adulthood.

Together, we integrate behavioral, neurobiological, and computational methods to advance fundamental knowledge with the ultimate goal of informing interventions that support mental health and cognitive function in diverse populations.

Research Highlights

The role of income inequality in brain structure and function

This recent paper shows that higher income inequality is associated with widespread differences in brain structure and functional connectivity during late childhood. Children living in states with greater income inequality showed reduced cortical thickness and surface area across multiple regions, along with altered communication between large-scale brain networks. These brain differences partly explained the association between income inequality and greater mental health problems over time. Together, the findings suggest that structural income inequality shapes neurodevelopment in ways that contribute to mental health disparities, beyond individual socioeconomic circumstances.

Green space and the adolescent brain

This longitudinal study shows that greater exposure to greenspace in late childhood is associated with differences in cortical brain development over time. Higher greenspace exposure was linked to larger cortical surface area and volume, region-specific patterns of cortical thickness, as well as neurodevelopmental trajectories. These cortical differences partly explained associations between greenspace exposure and better mental health and academic performance, suggesting a neurodevelopmental pathway linking everyday environmental exposure to positive outcomes.