Reduced frontal white matter volume in children with early onset of adrenarche

P Klauser; S Whittle; JG Simmons; ML Byrne; LK Mundy; GC Patton; A Fornito; NB Allen

Journal article

Reduced frontal white matter volume in children with early onset of adrenarche

P Klauser, S Whittle, JG Simmons, ML Byrne, LK Mundy, GC Patton, A Fornito, NB Allen

Psychoneuroendocrinology | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.10.020

Abstract

While there is growing evidence that puberty affects brain development, very little is known about the structural brain changes associated with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), an adrenal hormone that exhibits dramatic increases during adrenarche, the earliest phase of puberty. Moreover, no research has investigated whether relatively early exposure to DHEA (i.e., early adrenarche) during this period is associated with differences in brain structure. We ran a whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging brain scans to compare gray (GMV) and white matter volumes (WMV) between children experiencing relatively early (. n=. 41) vs. relatively late (. n=. 4..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Paul Klauser Author

Sarah Whittle Author

Julian Simmons Author

Lisa Mundy Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the participants to this study and all the staff of the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (CATS) at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI). The CATS study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, ID: 1010018). Special thanks to Dr Megan Dennison, Dr Rebecca Davenport-Thomas and Ms Rachel Ellis who greatly contributed to data acquisition and processing.Paul Klauser was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Society for Medicine and Biology Scholarships (ID: 148384). Sarah Whittle was supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (ID: 1007716). Alex Fornito was supported by an NHMRC Project Grant (ID: 1050504) and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (ID: FT130100589). George Patton was supported by an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship (ID: 454360). This study has been funded by a Discovery Project grant from the ARC (ID: DP120101402). MCRI research was supported by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Program.