ReviewPubertal onset as a critical transition for neural development and cognition
Introduction
Adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood, characterized by neural maturation and changes in a variety of cognitive behaviors in addition to reproductive behavior. While it is obvious that libido and sexual behavior are set into motion by puberty, it is less apparent that pubertal onset is also involved in the maturation of the cerebral cortex and executive functions that occur during adolescence. It is difficult to establish the role of puberty in these changes in human adolescents where pubertal indices unfold over many years (Marshall and Tanner, 1969, Marshall and Tanner, 1970). In addition, specific information regarding pubertal status is often unavailable, especially for autopsy tissue where the cellular underpinnings of the loss of cortical volume can be examined. We will focus on cortical development and work from our laboratory in this review. We will present evidence from both human and animal models that puberty is an important event for many of the neural and behavioral changes that occur during adolescence.
Section snippets
Humans
Several MRI studies have indicated that the human cerebral cortex decreases in size during adolescence (Jernigan et al., 1991, Giedd et al., 1999, Sowell et al., 1999). While this appears to occur across many cortical areas, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has the most reliably large decrease (Sowell et al., 2003, Gogtay et al., 2004), and this is especially interesting given that behaviors mediated by the PFC in particular undergo maturation during this time (Durston and Casey, 2006). There was a
Hormone receptors
One obvious question is which hormone receptors are present peripuberally in the cerebral cortex, particularly within the mPFC. This very relevant topic has not been directly explored in the existing literature. In the adult human temporal cortex, both males and females have moderate levels estrogen receptor (ER) α and ERβ (González et al., 2007). It is not known if these receptors are present in the PFC or if they are expressed during the pubertal transition. Like estrogen receptors, androgen
Adolescence
The adolescent period in humans is known to be associated with changes in performance on a variety of tasks, especially those that are PFC-dependent. Notably, cognitive control, defined as situationally appropriate behavioral responses in the face of conflicting ones, improves considerably between the juvenile period and adulthood (see Durston and Casey, 2006). Included within this definition is behavioral inhibition and cognitive flexibility, which coincide with a decrease in perseverative
Conclusions
There is considerable evidence that puberty is a central event in the reorganization of the cortex, especially the prefrontal cortex, during adolescence in both humans and rats. The evidence for the role of pubertal onset in the maturation of the functions of the cortex is less definitive, given the paucity of studies done where puberty was used as an experimental variable. Still, many types of behavior are influenced by gonadal steroids throughout life, suggesting that puberty could affect
Acknowledgments
The recent unpublished work was supported by NIH MH099625 to JMJ and NIH Training Grant T32 ES007326 currently supports JW. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
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