To say that human sexuality takes shape during puberty and adolescence may be stating the obvious. But what first meets the eye can be parsed more mechanistically, and also becomes of interest to the clinician, when one considers recent revelations of the remarkable remodeling of the human adolescent brain and new animal studies demonstrating a role for pubertal hormones in the adolescent remodeling of neural circuits underlying sexual behavior. The purpose of this commentary is to review the growing body of evidence that gonadal steroid hormones, acting in the brain during puberty and adolescence, sculpt neural circuits to program the expression of sexual behavior in adulthood. A corollary to the premise that steroid hormones alter the developmental trajectory of the adolescent brain is that individual differences in the timing of hormone-brain interactions during puberty and adolescence contribute to individual differences in the expression of sexual behavior in adulthood.
Puberty and adolescence are distinct but interrelated developmental processesPuberty and adolescence are often used synonymously to refer to the developmental transition from childhood to adulthood, but they are not one and the same. Puberty is the period during which an individual becomes capable of sexually reproducing. Adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood, encompassing not only reproductive maturation, but also cognitive, emotional, and social maturation. A biological hallmark of puberty is the elevated secretion of gonadal steroid hormones, leading to the overt signs of reproductive maturation in humans, such as breast development or the appearance of facial hair. A biological hallmark of adolescence is the overhaul of cortical and limbic circuits, leading to the acquisition of adult-typical cognitive skills, decision-making strategies, and social behaviors.