Brain and Behaviour evidence of puberty in adolescence
, 1. Structural brain development and puberty
Lots of non-human animal studies
We will focus on human structural and diffusion MRI studies
a. Structural MRI
i. Total grey and white matter volume (Peper et al. 2009a, 2009b)
ii. Regional subcortical volumes (Goddings et al. 2014)
iii. Regional cortical and subcortical grey and white matter volumes (Herting et
al. 2014)
b. Diffusion MRI
i. White matter integrity (Menzies et al. 2015)
Mainly animal studies - adolescence as a sensitive/critical period for brain development via
pubertal reorganisation
c. See e.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/brain-research/vol/1654/part/PB
Structural MRI
Peper et al. 2009a
◦ Methods
◦ Participants: N=78 aged 10-15 (M+F)
◦ Structural MRI at 1 timepoint
◦ Salivary testosterone, urinary estradiol
◦ Visual TS
◦ Main result:
◦ Estradiol correlates negatively with grey matter volume in girls, correcting
for the impact of age – suggests that puberty accounts for additional
variance in grey matter volume over and above age
Peper et al. 2009b
◦ Methods
◦ N=210 early adolescent (age 9) with N=47 showing early signs of puberty
(M+F)
◦ Structural MRI at 1 time-point
◦ Salivary testosterone, urinary estradiol
◦ Visual TS
◦ Main results
, 1. Structural brain development and puberty
Lots of non-human animal studies
We will focus on human structural and diffusion MRI studies
a. Structural MRI
i. Total grey and white matter volume (Peper et al. 2009a, 2009b)
ii. Regional subcortical volumes (Goddings et al. 2014)
iii. Regional cortical and subcortical grey and white matter volumes (Herting et
al. 2014)
b. Diffusion MRI
i. White matter integrity (Menzies et al. 2015)
Mainly animal studies - adolescence as a sensitive/critical period for brain development via
pubertal reorganisation
c. See e.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/brain-research/vol/1654/part/PB
Structural MRI
Peper et al. 2009a
◦ Methods
◦ Participants: N=78 aged 10-15 (M+F)
◦ Structural MRI at 1 timepoint
◦ Salivary testosterone, urinary estradiol
◦ Visual TS
◦ Main result:
◦ Estradiol correlates negatively with grey matter volume in girls, correcting
for the impact of age – suggests that puberty accounts for additional
variance in grey matter volume over and above age
Peper et al. 2009b
◦ Methods
◦ N=210 early adolescent (age 9) with N=47 showing early signs of puberty
(M+F)
◦ Structural MRI at 1 time-point
◦ Salivary testosterone, urinary estradiol
◦ Visual TS
◦ Main results
