Biomarkers of Risk-taking and Anxiety in Adolescents: an inVestigation on the Effects of stress

Objective

Adolescence is a pivotal developmental window characterised by profound neurobiological, social, and emotional changes. It is also the peak period for the onset of anxiety disorders, which affect 1 in 7 individuals across the lifespan and rank among the top global contributors to disease burden. Paradoxically, while anxiety in adults is typically associated with avoidance, many anxious adolescents engage in impulsive and high-risk behaviours. This clinical and conceptual paradox remains poorly understood. This Action will address this gap by adopting an integrated biopsychosocial approach to investigate how anxiety and stress jointly influence the anticipatory, choice, and feedback phases of risk-related decision-making in adolescence. Leveraging cutting-edge methods, including behavioural paradigms, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), autonomic psychophysiology (HRV, skin conductance), actigraphy, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA), I will bridge lab-based precision with ecological validity. I hypothesise that stress dynamically shifts neural and autonomic responses in anxious adolescents, producing divergent outcomes: maladaptive avoidance or excessive risk-taking. Individual differences, such as environmental sensitivity and physiological self-regulation, are expected to moderate these effects. The findings will produce early, scalable markers of maladaptive trajectories, informing targeted prevention. Through a unique combination of expertise and training opportunities offered during the outgoing (University of Connecticut) and return (University of Padua) phases, this fellowship will provide me with advanced interdisciplinary skills, expand my methodological repertoire, and consolidate my path towards independence as a leading researcher in developmental clinical neuroscience.