1-077 - Elucidating the role of puberty for neurodevelopment

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium tackles an understudied question: What is the role of puberty for neurodevelopment? The talks include an array of puberty measures (status, timing and tempo, hormones) and neurodevelopment (executive function [EF], brain structure and function). Combined with advanced statistical modeling, the presented work provides a well-rounded, innovative consideration of how puberty contributes to child and adolescent neurodevelopment.
The first study used a six-year longitudinal design and dual-process latent growth models to illustrate that EF skills developed in tandem with puberty: youth with earlier and faster pubertal development had higher initial and faster developing EF skills. The second study analyzed diffusion tensor imaging data from a longitudinal cohort using multi-level modeling to demonstrate that age and testosterone levels independently predicted structural connectivity development between the striatum (implicated in reward) and subcortical (emotion) and prefrontal cortical (EF) regions. The final study used novel person-specific unified structural equation models in young age-matched girls who differed in pubertal status to demonstrate differences in neural connectivity in the striatum and insula (implicated in cognition) during a risk-taking task: prepubertally, cognition drove reward, whereas during puberty reward drove cognition.
Together, a coherent picture emerges whereby pubertal maturation is implicated in EF development, including the structural and functional connections that link reward circuitry to the developing capacity for regulatory cognition. A leading expert will discuss the findings, focusing on implications for adolescent risk-taking, integration across measures/methods, and future directions for harnessing advancements in neuroscience to understand the role of puberty for child and adolescent development.

Sub Unit

• Biology and Neuroscience

Chair

• Kristine Marceau, Purdue University

Discussant

• Ronald E. Dahl, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Continuity and Change in EF across the Transition to Adolescence - Presenting Author: Natasha Chaku, Fordham University; Lindsay Till Hoyt, Fordham University; Terri Sabol, Northwestern University

• Development of striatal white matter connectivity in adolescence: influences of testosterone and age - Presenting Author: Anne-Lise Goddings, University College London; Eveline Crone, Leiden University; Jiska Peper, University of Leiden

• Puberty influences reward-related neural connectivity: Girls with early versus typical maturation - Presenting Author: Adriene M. Beltz, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan; Ratna Acharya, University of Florida; Julia A. Graber, University of Florida; Sara Jo Nixon, University of Florida; Sarah D Lynne-Landsman, University of Florida