Neurolab: Neurolab: When the Brain Is Under Threat

Trauma, Stress and the Brain: What Happens to Executive Function Under Threat?

Interactive Neuro Lab | CPD Accredited Session
With Professor Adele Diamond

What happens to our ability to think, regulate, remember and make decisions when the brain is under threat?

Join Professor Adele Diamond, one of the world’s leading experts on executive function, for a fascinating interactive Neuro Lab exploring the relationship between trauma, stress, the brain and executive function.

Drawing on decades of research into executive function and the developing brain, Professor Diamond will explore the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, and what happens to the executive functions we rely on for attention, working memory, self-control and flexible thinking when we experience stress or threat.

This session moves beyond what behaviour looks like on the surface to explore an important question: what might be happening in the brain beneath it?

What You’ll Explore

• How stress and trauma can affect executive function
• What happens between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala when the brain perceives threat
• Why it can become harder to think clearly, regulate emotions and control responses under stress
• How stress and adversity can influence executive function development
• The impact on attention, working memory, self-control and flexible thinking
• Why behaviour that looks like poor motivation, lack of self-control or disengagement may have much more happening beneath the surface
• What understanding the neuroscience can teach us about providing more effective support

Who Should Attend?

This Neuro Lab is for anyone interested in understanding the brain behind behaviour, including teachers, SENCOs and education leaders; psychologists, therapists and mental health professionals; executive function, ADHD and neurodiversity coaches; HR, wellbeing and workplace professionals; parents and carers; and professionals supporting neurodivergent children, young people or adults.

It will also be valuable for anyone with an interest in executive function, trauma, stress and the brain.

About Professor Adele Diamond

Professor Adele Diamond is a world-renowned developmental cognitive neuroscientist and one of the leading researchers in the field of executive function. Her work has contributed significantly to our understanding of the cognitive processes that enable us to think, focus, exercise self-control, adapt and solve problems.

This Neuro Lab offers an opportunity to explore these ideas directly with one of the field’s most influential researchers.

Part of the Connections in Mind Neuro Lab Series

The Connections in Mind Neuro Lab series brings leading thinkers, researchers and practitioners together to explore and interrogate the science shaping how we understand executive function.

These interactive sessions create space for evidence, discussion and curiosity—connecting research with the questions professionals encounter in real-world practice.