The effects of puberty and its hormones on subcortical brain development

N Vijayakumar; G Youssef; NB Allen; V Anderson; D Efron; L Mundy; G Patton; JG Simmons; T Silk; S Whittle

Journal article

The effects of puberty and its hormones on subcortical brain development

N Vijayakumar, G Youssef, NB Allen, V Anderson, D Efron, L Mundy, G Patton, JG Simmons, T Silk, S Whittle

Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology | Published : 2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2021.100074

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Abstract

Puberty triggers a period of structural “re-organization” in the brain, when rising hormone levels act via receptors to influence morphology. However, our understanding of these neuroendocrine processes in humans remains poor. As such, the current longitudinal study characterized development of the human subcortex during puberty, including changes in relation to pubertal (Tanner) stage and hormone (testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA]) levels. Beyond normative group-level patterns of development, we also examined whether individual differences in the rate of pubertal maturation (i.e., “pubertal/hormonal tempo”) were associated with variations in subcortical trajectories. Participants ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Nandita Vijayakumar Author

Nick Allen Author

Vicki Anderson Author

Lisa Mundy Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the families who have participated in both NICAP and iCATS. NICAP was funded by the National Medical Health and Research Council of Australia (NHMRC; project grant #1065895) . iCATS was funded by a Discovery Project grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC; DP120101402) . SW was supported by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (#1125504) . Cohorts were supported by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, Department of Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. This work was also supported by computational resources provided by the Australian Government through MASSIVE under the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme. We also thank The Royal Children's Hospital's Medical Imaging staff for their assistance and expertise in the collection of the MRI data included in this study.