Puberty differentially predicts brain maturation in male and female youth: A longitudinal ABCD Study

Beck, Dani; Ferschmann, Lia; MacSweeney, Niamh; Norbom, Linn B.; Wiker, Thea; Aksnes, Eira; Karl, Valerie; Dégeilh, Fanny; Holm, Madelene; Mills, Kathryn L.; Andreassen, Ole A.; Agartz, Ingrid; Soest, Tilmann von; Tamnes, Christian K.

doi:10.1101/2022.12.22.22283852

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Notably, females exhibited a greater increase in BAG during this age range compared to males, which could be related to the onset of puberty. Pubertal maturation has been associated with accelerated brain development (22,25,55), and subsequent studies should examine patterns of pubertal maturation alongside brain development and youth psychopathology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multimodal brain age indicators of internalising problems in adolescence: A longitudinal investigation

MacSweeney,

Beck,

Whitmore

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background: Adolescence is a time of increased risk for the onset of internalising problems, particularly in females. However, how individual differences in brain maturation relate to the increased vulnerability for internalising problems in adolescence remains poorly understood due to a scarcity of longitudinal studies. Methods: Using Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study data, we examined longitudinal associations between multimodal brain age and youth internalising problems. Brain age models were trained, validated, and tested independently on T1-weighted (T1; N=9523), diffusion tensor (DTI; N=8834), and resting-state functional (rs-fMRI; N=8233) MRI data at baseline (Mage= 9.9 years) and 2-year follow-up (Mage= 11.9 years). Self-reported internalising problems were measured at 3-year follow-up (Mage= 12.9 years) using the Brief Problem Monitor.Results: Latent change score models demonstrated that although brain age gap (BAG) at baseline was not related to later internalising problems, an increase in BAG between timepoints was positively associated with internalising problems at 3-year follow-up in females but not males. This association between an increasing BAG and higher internalising problems was observed in the T1 (β=0.071, SE=0.050, p=0.009) and rs-fMRI (β=0.091, SE=0.025, p=0.005) models but not DTI (β=-0.024, SE=0.053, p=0.648), and remained significant when accounting for earlier internalising problems. Conclusions: A greater increase in BAG over time may reflect the heightened vulnerability shown by female youth to internalising problems. Longitudinal research is necessary to understand if this increasing BAG signifies accelerated brain development and its relationship to the trajectory of internalising problems throughout adolescence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multimodal brain age indicators of internalising problems in adolescence: A longitudinal investigation

MacSweeney,

Beck,

Whitmore

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Pubertal status was assessed using the PDS 75 , a measure designed to mimic the Tanner scale to assess the development of secondary sex characteristics during the onset of puberty. In line with past research using PDS in the ABCD sample 56,76 , pubertal status was calculated by taking the average of the seven PDS items present on the parental PDS survey collected at each time point.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Environment and White Matter Development in Early Adolescence

Roy,

Van Rinsveld,

Nedelec

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Coarse measures of socioeconomic status, such as parental income or parental education, have been linked to differences in white matter development. However, these measures do not provide insight into specific aspects of an individual's environment and how they relate to brain development. On the other hand, educational intervention studies have shown that changes in an individual's educational context can drive measurable changes in their white matter. These studies, however, rarely consider socioeconomic factors in their results. In the present study, we examined the unique effect of educational opportunity on white matter development, even when controlling other known socioeconomic factors. To explore this question, we leveraged the rich demographic and neuroimaging data available in the ABCD study, as well the unique data-crosswalk between ABCD and the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA). We find that educational opportunity is related to accelerated white matter development, even when accounting for other socioeconomic factors, and that this relationship is most pronounced in white matter tracts associated with academic skills. These results suggest that the school a child attends has a measurable impact on brain development for years to come.

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“…We then tested how these patterns of pubertal development relate to later internalising symptoms. Given that females begin puberty 6-18 months before males, there is less variance in the available ABCD puberty data for male youth compared to females (Beck et al, 2023;MacSweeney et al, 2023), which would make drawing firm conclusions about potential sex differences difficult. We therefore decided to test our hypotheses in a female-only sample but acknowledge that there is a paucity of research on male pubertal development in the context of psychopathology (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017) and future research should include both sexes when the appropriate data are available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of pubertal development in the association between trauma and internalising symptoms in female youth

MacSweeney,

Thomson,

von Soest

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Objective: Exposure to trauma in childhood is associated with an increased risk for internalizing symptoms. Alterations in pubertal development has been proposed as a potential mechanism underpinning this association. However, longitudinal studies, which are needed to examine pubertal development over time, are scarce. The goal of this pre-registered study was to examine how trauma exposure shapes the timing and tempo of pubertal development, and in turn contributes to risk for internalizing symptoms. Methods: Using the largest longitudinal sample to date, we characterized profiles of pubertal development across four time points in female youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 4,225, age range = 9 to 14 years) using latent class growth analysis. Pubertal development was assessed using the Pubertal Development Scale (at four time-points), trauma exposure was quantified using the post-traumatic stress disorder subscale from the parent-report Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for DSM-5 (at baseline), and internalizing symptoms were assessed using the self-report Brief Problem Monitor (at the 3-year follow-up). Structural equation modelling and Kruskal-Wallis tests were leveraged to examine the associations between trauma exposure, pubertal development, and internalizing symptoms.Results: We found that pubertal development could be grouped into three latent classes: early starters (9% of the sample), typical developers (76%), and slow developers (15%). The early starters demonstrated higher levels of trauma exposure compared to typical developers and slow developers, while slow developers reported the least exposure to trauma. Further, youth with greater exposure to trauma were at an increased risk for internalizing symptoms at ages 12–14 years, and this association was mediated by a higher pubertal status at ages 9–10 years, but not by pubertal tempo. Conclusion: Accelerated pubertal development, characterized by an earlier age of onset but not a higher pubertal tempo in the transition from late childhood to early adolescence, may be a mechanism through which trauma exposure in childhood increases risk for internalizing symptoms in female youth.

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Puberty differentially predicts brain maturation in male and female youth: A longitudinal ABCD Study

Cited by 6 publications

References 78 publications

Multimodal brain age indicators of internalising problems in adolescence: A longitudinal investigation

Multimodal brain age indicators of internalising problems in adolescence: A longitudinal investigation

Educational Environment and White Matter Development in Early Adolescence

The role of pubertal development in the association between trauma and internalising symptoms in female youth

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