Developmental trajectories of cortical thickness by functional brain network: The roles of pubertal timing and socioeconomic status

The human cerebral cortex undergoes considerable changes during development, with cortical maturation patterns reflecting regional heterogeneity that generally progresses in a posterior-to-anterior fashion. However, the organizing principles that govern cortical development remain unclear. In the current study, we characterized age-related differences in cortical thickness (CT) as a function of sex, pubertal timing, and two dissociable indices of socioeconomic status (i.e., income-to-needs and maternal education) in the context of functional brain network organization, using a cross-sectional sample (n = 789) diverse in race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status from the Lifespan Human Connectome Project in Development (HCP-D). We found that CT generally followed a linear decline from 5 to 21 years of age, except for three functional networks that displayed nonlinear trajectories. We found no main effect of sex or age by sex interaction for any network. Earlier pubertal timing was associated with reduced mean CT and CT in seven networks. We also found a significant age by maternal education interaction for mean CT across cortex and CT in the dorsal attention network, where higher levels of maternal education were associated with steeper age-related decreases in CT. Taken together, our results suggest that these biological and environmental variations may impact the emerging functional connectome.     

Age at Pubertal Development in a Hispanic-Latina Female Population: Should the Definitions Be Revisited?

Study ObjectiveTo assess pubertal events in a Hispanic female population and to create normograms of puberty.DesignLongitudinal.SettingUniversity facility.ParticipantsFive hundred forty-nine girls from the Growth and Obesity Chilean Cohort study.InterventionsFollow-up twice a year beginning at age 6 years.Main Outcome MeasuresBreast development, pubic hair development, and age. Breast development (B2, B3, and B4) and pubarche (P2) were determined. Age at menarche was obtained from the adolescents and their mothers. Age and growth velocity at peak height velocity were calculated.ResultsIn girls, B2, B3, and B4 occur at median ages of 9.2, 10.2, and 10.9 years, respectively. The median age at P2 was 9.7 years. The mean age at peak height velocity and the growth velocity were 10.6 years (SD = 1.1) and 8 cm/y, respectively. The mean age at menarche was 11.9 years (SD = 1.1); only 2.8% (15 /530) of girls experienced menarche after 14 years and 1.9% before 10 years. The mean interval time between B2 and menarche was 2.5 ± 1.0 years. Transient thelarche occurred in 8.6% of girls.ConclusionThis longitudinal cohort shows that thelarche occurred 1.2 months later than previously reported in cross-sectional studies. Conversely, we found that pubic hair appeared 12 months earlier and menarche occurred 9 months earlier than previously reported. These findings are important in setting normalcy data and avoiding unnecessary clinical consultations.     

Susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence in adolescence

IntroductionAdolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence and previous studies have shown that this susceptibility decreases with age. The current study used a cross-sectional experimental paradigm to investigate the effect of age and puberty on susceptibility to both prosocial and antisocial influence.MethodsParticipants (N = 520) aged 11–18 from London and Cambridge (United Kingdom) rated how likely they would be to engage in a prosocial (e.g. “help a classmate with their work”) or antisocial (e.g. “make fun of a classmate”) act. They were then shown the average rating (in fact fictitious) that other adolescents had given to the same question, and were then asked to rate the same behaviour again.ResultsBoth prosocial and antisocial influence decreased linearly with age, with younger adolescents being more socially influenced when other adolescents’ ratings were more prosocial and less antisocial than their own initial rating. Both antisocial and prosocial influence significantly decreased across puberty for boys but not girls (independent of age).ConclusionsThese findings suggest that social influence declines with increasing maturity across adolescence. However, the exact relationship between social influence and maturity is dependent on the nature of the social influence and gender. Understanding when adolescents are most susceptible to different types of social influence, and how this might influence their social behaviour, has important implications for understanding adolescent social development.     

青春期卵巢型子宫内膜异位症保守手术后复发9例临床分析

目的: 探讨青春期卵巢型子宫内膜异位症（endometriosis,EMs）患者术后复发的可能原因。方法: 回顾性分析经保守性手术治疗后复发的9例青春期卵巢型EMs患者的临床病例资料。 结果: 9例患者中,Ⅰ期1例,Ⅲ期1例,Ⅳ期7例;7例患者于停止药物治疗后3~4个月痛经复发;7例患者初次手术后1年内病灶复发,另外2例分别为手术后3年及4年后复发。病灶复发可见于对侧卵巢3例,初次手术病灶较小一侧卵巢3例,同侧卵巢2例,双侧卵巢复发1例。5例患者初次手术后复发1次,3例患者复发2次,1例患者复发3次。2例患者术后妊娠并足月分娩。9例患者术后药物治疗2~6个周期。结论: 青春期卵巢型EMs患者保守手术后复发患者初次手术时临床分期高,病灶及痛经复发多在手术后1年内。临床分期高、痛经史、术后药物长期管理依从性差及妊娠意愿低等可能是手术后复发原因。     

中医药辨证治疗脾虚型青春期功能失调性子宫出血51例临床近远期疗效研究

目的:探讨中医药辨证治疗脾虚型青春期功能失调性子宫出血疗效,以期丰富治疗方法。方法:选取2011年12月至2013年11月102例脾虚型青春期功能失调性子宫出血患者为研究对象,分成2组,对照组51例,采用黄体酮胶囊口服,观察组51例,采用益气化瘀方和补肾固冲方治疗,观察治疗后相关指标变化情况。结果:对照组治愈率19.61%、总有效率84.31%,观察组治愈率41.18%、总有效率96.08%,观察组在治愈率和总有效率上显著高于对照组(P0.05);2组治疗前后在血红蛋白和纤维蛋白原上比较无统计学意义(P0.05),血栓素A_2上治疗后较治疗前显著下降(P0.05),血浆P浓度、D-二聚体治疗后较治疗前显著提高(P0.05),观察组治疗后在血栓素A_2、D-二聚体较对照组治疗后比较无统计学意义(P0.05),在血浆P浓度升高较对照组有统计学意义(P0.05);观察组止血时间较对照组明显缩短,2组比较有统计学意义(P0.05),对照组1年内再出血发生率、不良反应发生率分别为23.53%、9.8%,观察组1年内再出血发生率、不良反应发生率分别为11.76%、1.96%,观察组明显低于对照组,2组比较有统计学意义(P0.05)。观察组患者在阴道流血、流血次数、小腹疼痛、心悸气短、面色无华单项临床症状总疗效均明显高于对照组,组间比较差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:中医药辨证治疗脾虚型青春期功能失调性子宫出血疗效确切。     

The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out

Adolescents are commonly portrayed as highly emotional, with their behaviors often hijacked by their emotions. Research on the neural substrates of adolescent affective behavior is beginning to paint a more nuanced picture of how neurodevelopmental changes in brain function influence affective behavior, and how these influences are modulated by external factors in the environment. Recent neurodevelopmental models suggest that the brain is designed to promote emotion regulation, learning, and affiliation across development, and that affective behavior reciprocally interacts with age-specific social demands and different social contexts. In this review, we discuss current findings on neurobiological mechanisms of adolescents’ affective behavior and highlight individual differences in and social-contextual influences on adolescents’ emotionality. Neurobiological mechanisms of affective processes related to anxiety and depression are also discussed as examples. As the field progresses, it will be critical to test new hypotheses generated from the foundational empirical and conceptual work and to focus on identifying more precisely how and when neural networks change in ways that promote or thwart adaptive affective behavior during adolescence.     

The mammary gland is a sensitive pubertal target in CD-1 and C57Bl/6 mice following perinatal perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) exposure

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a developmental toxicant in mice, with varied strain outcomes depending on dose and period of exposure. The impact of PFOA on female mouse pubertal development at low doses (≤1 mg/kg) has yet to be determined. Therefore, female offspring from CD-1 and C57Bl/6 dams exposed to PFOA, creating serum concentrations similar to humans, were examined for pubertal onset, including mammary gland development. Pups demonstrated a shorter PFOA elimination half-life than that reported for adult mice. Prenatal exposure to PFOA caused significant mammary developmental delays in female offspring in both strains. Delays started during puberty and persisted into young adulthood; severity was dose-dependent. Also an evaluation of female serum hormone levels and pubertal timing onset revealed no effects of PFOA compared to controls in either strain. These data suggest that the mammary gland is more sensitive to early low level PFOA exposures compared to other pubertal endpoints, regardless of strain.     

The effects of long-term testosterone,gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and pimozide treatments on testicular development and luteinizing hormone levels in juvenile and early maturing striped bass,Morone saxatilis

The present study was conducted to test the responsiveness of the juvenile male reproductive axis to hormonal stimulation and to compare it to that of early maturing males. Long-term treatments with various combinations of T, GnRHa and pimozide did not result in an increased incidence of early maturing males, but did stimulate spermatogenesis slightly in juvenile fish. In early maturing males, the treatments appeared to be inhibitory since they resulted in a reduction of the GSI and a lower incidence of spermiating males. In early maturing males, pituitary LH content was elevated by GnRHa treatments alone while in juvenile males a combination of T and GnRHa was needed to increase the levels of LH in the pituitary. Thus, T may play an important role during puberty by potentiating the effects of GnRH on LH synthesis. In both juvenile and early maturing males, plasma LH levels could be increased only by high doses of GnRHa (in combination with T). Therefore, LH synthesis and release probably require different levels of GnRH stimulation. A GnRH challenge (single injection of 50 microg GnRHa/kg) at the end of the experiment resulted in a dramatic elevation of plasma LH levels in almost all animals. This finding demonstrates that pituitaries from juvenile and early maturing males were responsive to GnRHa stimulation, even after long-term hormonal treatments. The addition of pimozide did not affect the T- and GnRHa-induced increase in pituitary LH content but inhibited the release of LH in response to a GnRHa challenge. In conclusion, high doses of GnRHa in combination with T can increase plasma LH levels in juvenile males but do not induce complete testicular maturation. Factors other than T, GnRHa or LH are probably involved in the induction and completion of spermatogenesis.