About
Divyangana Rakesh’s research uses developmental cognitive neuroscience to investigate how environmental adversity and inequality become biologically embedded in the developing brain, shaping long-term cognitive function and mental health. Drawing on large-scale neuroimaging datasets, her work spans individual, neighbourhood, and societal levels of analysis — from household poverty to neighbourhood disadvantage and macroeconomic inequality — to understand how these conditions alter brain structure, functional connectivity, and academic outcomes in children and adolescents. Her research emphasizes resilience as well as risk, asking what protects children from the effects of disadvantage. Her work is currently funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Awards
- Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science, 2025
- Young Investigator Award, Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation, 2024
- Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in PhD Research, University of Melbourne, 2023
- Dissertation Award, Flux Society, 2022
- Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Research, 2022
Relevant Publications
- Rakesh, D., Tsomokos, D. I., Vargas, T., Pickett, K. E., & Patel, V. (2025). Macroeconomic income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health. Nature Mental Health, 3(11), 1318-1330.
- Rakesh, D., Whittle, S., Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2023). Childhood socioeconomic status and the pace of structural neurodevelopment: accelerated, delayed, or simply different?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(9), 833-851.
- Rakesh, D., Seguin, C., Zalesky, A., Cropley, V., & Whittle, S. (2021). Associations between neighborhood disadvantage, resting-state functional connectivity, and behavior in the adolescent brain cognitive development study: the moderating role of positive family and school environments. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6(9), 877-886.