Elsevier

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Volume 92, September 2018, Pages 417-436
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Review article
Puberty and the human brain: Insights into adolescent development

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.06.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Pubertal associations with subcortical and frontal brain regions.

  • Distinct role of pubertal stage and timing on brain development.

  • Longitudinal studies highlight importance of examining non-linear associations.

  • Discuss potential sources of inconsistencies and recommend future directions.

Abstract

Alongside the exponential flourish of research on age-related trajectories of human brain development during childhood and adolescence in the past two decades, there has been an increase in the body of work examining the association between pubertal development and brain maturation. This review systematically examines empirical research on puberty-related structural and functional brain development in humans, with the aim of identifying convergent patterns of associations. We emphasize longitudinal studies, and discuss pervasive but oft-overlooked methodological issues that may be contributing to inconsistent findings and hindering progress (e.g., conflating distinct pubertal indices and different measurement instruments). We also briefly evaluate support for prominent models of adolescent neurodevelopment that hypothesize puberty-related changes in brain regions involved in affective and motivational processes. For the field to progress, replication studies are needed to help resolve current inconsistencies and gain a clearer understanding of pubertal associations with brain development in humans, knowledge that is crucial to make sense of the changes in psychosocial functioning, risk behavior, and mental health during adolescence.

Introduction

Adolescence is a time of risk and resilience, when both positive and negative lifetime trajectories unfold (Dahl, 2004). This developmental period is also shaped by the release of pubertal hormones that trigger the process of sexual maturation, resulting in a myriad of physical and biological changes encompassing increased growth and metabolic rate, alterations in fat and muscle, breast and genital development and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics. At the same time, adolescents experience marked changes in social, emotional, and cognitive processes that ultimately enable them to attain adult roles and responsibilities (Choudhury, 2010). Along with educational and vocational achievement, this period sees a child dependent on their parents progress to a relatively independent young adult who is more responsible for their own behaviour and actions (Davey et al., 2008). In addition, significant changes in brain structure and function have been identified during this period (Crone and Dahl, 2012; Mills and Tamnes, 2014). One way to integrate across these multilevel changes is to conceptualize puberty as referring to the biological changes and adolescence as referring to the social changes (Sisk and Foster, 2004), with neurodevelopment as a potential mediator of the association between biochemical and psychosocial changes, and thus between puberty and adolescence (Blakemore et al., 2010).

Over the last two decades, there has been much research using MRI to investigate anatomical and functional changes in the brain during adolescence. While most of these studies have focused on the effect of age, there has been a more recent rise in the number of articles examining the effect of pubertal development on the brain. Greater understanding of these associations is crucial to make sense of the psychosocial changes occurring during adolescence, such as heightened social sensitivity and self-awareness (Blakemore and Mills, 2014; Pfeifer and Peake, 2012; Weil et al., 2013), increased parental conflict (Marceau et al., 2012), and social influences on decision-making (Chein et al., 2011; Weigard et al., 2014). Therefore, we aim to systematically review research examining puberty-related brain development, with specific emphasis on studies using longitudinal designs.

Section snippets

Puberty

Pubertal development occurs in two phases, adrenarche and gonadarche, which are triggered by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes, respectively. Adrenarche is the earliest sign of puberty, typically occurring between the ages of 6 and 9 years, and earlier in girls than boys (Biro et al., 2014; Patton and Viner, 2007; Tung et al., 2004). It begins when the adrenal glands release androgens, such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulphate

Structural MRI studies

Studies examining the relationship between puberty and structural brain development fall into two major categories: i) investigations into changes in grey matter that contains neuron bodies and supporting glial cells, and ii) investigations into changes in white matter that contains the myelinated axon fibers of neurons.

Functional MRI studies

Studies examining the relationship between puberty and functional brain development have largely focused on two different aspects of psychosocial functioning: i) affective processes underlying motivational and emotional tendencies, and ii) cognitive processes that enable individuals to understand and interpret social situations. However, it should be noted that affective and cognitive processes work in conjunction with each other to support social functioning. In addition, we discuss a few

Overview

It is evident from this systematic review of structural and functional neuroimaging research that certain aspects of brain development are more strongly related to pubertal maturation than others. Structural development of subcortical regions is the most extensively investigated area thus far, with findings highlighting sex differences in the relationship between pubertal stage and amygdala volume, and to a lesser extent, hippocampal volume. The limited longitudinal research suggests that

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Health grants P50 DA035763 (PIs: Chamberlain and Fisher) and R01 MH107418 (PI: Pfeifer).

Declarations of interest

None.

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