College 5: Puberty and Brain development

Question 1

puberty

Answer 1

onset starts with hormonal changes
start earlier with girls than boys

start with physical changes, such as breast growth and growth of the testes

the changes can differ per individual however there are several stages in which they occur

Question 2

testosterone

Answer 2

one of the two major hormones blamed for physical changes

high level of testosterone prenatally is some evidence for sexual orientation for girls and for a bigger brain size

men have a daily rise and fall of this hormone

measured testosterone levels, the individual differences were mostly at play when they did the DG for friends and family. Testosterone might change something in the nACC

(testosterone may have effect on developing spines that make connections with other neurons and estradiol have a high density in effective brain regions and in the frontal cortex but this can only be studies in animal studies)

Question 3

estradiol and progesterone

Answer 3

other two important hormones more associated with the female gender

Question 4

pubertal change

Answer 4

you can see physical changes such as breast growth, length and the growth of the testes.

It differs per individual when this will be seen

Question 5

dual systems model

Answer 5

also known as the maturational imbalance model, is a theory arising from developmental cognitive neuroscience which posits that increased risk-taking during adolescence is a result of a combination of heightened reward sensitivity and immature impulse control

Question 6

hot and cold cognition

Answer 6

the difference between cold and hot cognition is the reason for increased risk-taking (imbalance model)

nACC more active around 17yo and associated with hot cognition

Question 7

adrenarche

Answer 7

means the awakening of the adrenal gland. the adrenal gland is responsible for making hormones, inculding androgens - sex hormones that causes changes such as the development of pubic hair, oily skin

Question 8

DHEA

Answer 8

is a hormone that your body naturally produces in the adrenal gland. DHEA helps produce other homrones, including testosterone and estrogen. Natural DHEA levels peaks in early adulthood and then slowly falls as you age

Question 9

Gonadarche

Answer 9

refers to the earliest gonadal changes of puberty. In response to pituitary gonadotropins, the ovaries in girls and the testes in boys begin to grow and increase the production of the sex steroids, especially estradiol and testosterone

Question 10

puberty and mental health issues

Answer 10

a peak of diagnosis of ADHD and autism is around the age of 8 for boys and for girls the peak at 12 for other sorts of mental health disorders.

it is very hard to simplify it just by putting it on hormones, because alot of environmental factors are at play. (example of sexual assault and anxiety)

Question 11

MRI

Answer 11

is used to look at different brain sizes and structures

Question 12

DTI

Answer 12

is used for the different connections within the brain

Question 13

fMRI

Answer 13

is used for the assessed blood flow (BOLD) in the brain and to see the brain activity

Question 14

Tempo of pubertal change study

Answer 14

in the 50’s there has been an experiment wherein boys and girls were followed and had to report any physical changes. However this study was a self-reported and hard to compare yourself to others in this stage and it was done in Ireland where nearly everyone was underfed

they did compare some of the tempo of pubertal changes and the onset/finishing stages

Question 15

HPA-Axis in mental health study

Answer 15

the study that has been done hypothesizes that the HPA-axis (responsible for stress reactions) increases in girls at the age of 13 and thus explaining some mental health isuess

Question 16

marshmallow experiment

Answer 16

offered the choice of a small but immediate reward (the marshmallow).
Children who initially did this experiment were followed and asked to do the same and they saw that this was a good predictor for the future on how well they performed this task, high cognitive control in reward areas when they were adults

however the outcomes were driven bij SES, because life is unpredictable for them so it was hard to have this certain control

Question 17

delay of gratification task

Answer 17

6 euros today or 10 euros next week.

Developmental progression shown in the data, children 8-10 yo tend to choose for the now option and the researcher thinkis this has something to do with the risk taking of children

Question 18

the balloon task (BART)

Answer 18

is a computerized task on which participants have the opportunity to win or lose potential earnings, where persistent responding increases gains but also increases the risk of loss on each trail.

the risk taking will go on up until 15 yo, they saw that their testosterone was higher and hypothesized that this comes with more risk-taking

Question 19

daily fluctuations study

Answer 19

this was related to the brain structure and related to the social brain

Question 20

machine learning study

Answer 20

a lot of brain scans are put int he computer who made a complex computation out of all the measures there were, and they predicted the brain age between boys and girls and you could compare them to the chronological age. So there was little evidence found for the delay in brain age between boys and girls.

For the performance at school they think that environmental factors are at play