Alexa Mousley

I'm a post-doctoral researcher in the 4D lab at the University of Cambridge. I'm currently exploring how different types of adverse experiences in childhood relate to the topology of structural networks in pre-teens (ABCD baseline cohort). I'm particularly interested in how this relationship may or may not relate to genetic background using polygenic scores. I finished my PhD in computational developmental neuroscience at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in 2025.

My non-academic interests include woodworking, basketball, guitar, and videography!

General Research Interests

I'm passionate about exploring the brain as a network of physical connections - just like a road map. Exploring how these networks are organised (e.g., 'topology') provides a great deal of information about their evolution, development, and purpose. I take this network neuroscience approach to explore how the brain develops connections and to test why we might see the diversity that we do in an individual's topology. These kinds of complex questions often require sophisticated methods, but I enjoy trying to find the simplest way to identify meaningful patterns in high-dimensional data using machine learning. Ultimately, my research goal is to help us better understand the development of the human brain.

For more info - see my CV