Advances in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychiatry: Integrating Cognitive Science and Mental Health

Dear Colleagues,

Research on the developmental origins of mental health and psychopathology has grown rapidly over the past two decades, driven by advances in developmental neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and psychiatry. A substantial body of literature has documented age-related changes in brain structure and function, identified the psychological and cognitive risk factors, and described the developmental trajectories of psychiatric disorders. However, much of this work remains compartmentalized within disciplinary traditions, often emphasizing either neural mechanisms or psychological processes in isolation. As a result, existing accounts frequently fall short of explaining how dynamic interactions between brain maturation, cognitive development, and lived experience jointly shape mental health outcomes across development. This fragmentation limits both theoretical progress and the translation of developmental science into clinically meaningful applications.

This Special Issue is motivated by the need for a more integrative developmental perspective that consolidates insights across levels of analysis and moves beyond descriptive associations toward a mechanistic and translational understanding. Its scientific relevance lies in explicitly bridging the fields of developmental neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry to clarify how neurodevelopmental processes interact with cognitive, emotional, and social development to confer risk for—or protection against—psychopathology.

We invite high-quality empirical, theoretical, and review contributions from the fields of developmental neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and psychiatry. Rapid advances in neural imaging, developmental psychology, and computational cognitive modeling are reshaping our understanding of how brain maturation and psychological processes jointly influence mental health trajectories across the lifespan. At the same time, emerging methodologies and longitudinal designs offer unprecedented opportunities to examine how early experiences, biological sensitivity, and environmental contexts become embedded in developing neural and cognitive systems. However, despite these advances, integrative models that connect neural, psychological, and clinical levels of analysis remain underdeveloped, leaving significant opportunities for synthesis, conceptual innovation, and methodological convergence.

We seek manuscripts that advance this integration by addressing topics such as the following:

• Neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying cognitive, emotional, and social development, and the implications these mechanisms have for psychological functioning and psychiatric vulnerability across childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood.
• Psychological and cognitive models—including developmental, social, cognitive, and clinical psychology—that elucidate how early experiences, learning processes, and social contexts interact with brain development to shape mental health trajectories.
• Translational research that connects neural, psychological, and cognitive findings for prevention, assessment, and intervention strategies, with particular emphasis on sensitive developmental periods and mechanisms of change.
• Biomarkers and methodological innovations (e.g., neuroimaging, genetics, digital phenotyping, behavioral analytics, computational modeling) that enhance early detection, risk stratification, or personalized treatment approaches.
• Integrated developmental frameworks that bridge psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry to reconceptualize diagnostic boundaries, developmental pathways to disorder, and developmentally informed therapeutic strategies.

By bringing together researchers and clinicians across developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical psychiatry, this Special Issue seeks to clarify how developing neural and cognitive systems contribute to the emergence, maintenance, and modification of psychopathology. Importantly, the integrative perspective advanced in this Special Issue is not only intended to refine theory, but also to enhance the precision of diagnostic practices and support the development of developmentally informed, evidence-based interventions for children, adolescents, and young adults.

Dr. Vanja Kopilaš
Dr. Lovorka Brajković
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Psychiatry International is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• developmental neuroscience
• developmental psychology
• cognitive science
• psychiatry
• neurodevelopment
• mental health