It may feel counterintuitive, but because she is a naturally optimistic person, Karina Quevedo, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, has chosen to focus her research on depressed adolescents.
“I feel like adolescence is a time of life that has so much hope,” she said. “I think that this is where we can make a real difference.”
A 2008 graduate of the university’s Institute of Child Development, Quevedo is leading a study that teaches participants to use memories of positive life events to activate areas of the brain that respond to those recollections. After working with researchers to conjure core happy memories, participants enter an MRI scanner where they are able, in real time, to see how recalling those memories can activate targeted areas of the brain, which can create lasting feelings of happiness.
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