Lecture 7- Adolescent Development

Question 1

What is Adolescence?

Answer 1

• critical period of development
• Defined by malleability and plasticity
• Aged 10-25

Question 2

What are some key characteristics of brain development and growth during adolescence?

Answer 2

1) highly malleable period= brain changes, highly influenced externally
2) Window of change
3) still need scaffolding and support

Question 3

What are the stages of pubertal development?

Answer 3

Adrenarche (6-9)
Gonadarche (9-11)
Menarche

Question 4

What occurs during the Adrenarche stage?

Answer 4

1) maturation of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA)
2) adrenarche hormones continue to rise and peak in the early 20s
3) Associate with pubic hair growth

Question 5

What happens during the Gonadarche stage

Answer 5

1) Reactivation of HPG
2) Rise contributes to breast and genital development

Question 6

What is the Menarche stage?

Answer 6

The arrival of the first period in girls

Question 7

How to measure Pubertal development?

Answer 7

1) Status- how far along maturation
2) Timing- how mature compared to peers
3) Tempo

Question 8

How does stress influence Puberty Timing?

Answer 8

1) Early Pubertal timing- Accelerated maturation by premature activation of HPA and HPG
2) Sexual abuse- lowers Menarche age
3) Physical abuse- Rapid tempo

Question 9

Which environmental factors influence pubertal timing?

Answer 9

1) Parental harshness and father absence- early menarche

Question 10

How does early puberty affect girls?

Answer 10

obesity and low birth weight

Question 11

How does late puberty affect boys?

Answer 11

obesity

Question 12

What are the socila norms of puberty?

Answer 12

• change in self-image- shame (menarche)
• changing relationships
• maturation is associated with sexual harassment

Question 13

How does puberty affect stress?

Answer 13

• pubertal hormones alters their response to stress, and girls are impacted
• cortisol promotes positive adaptation in the brain and body

Question 14

How does puberty affect neurobiological development?

Answer 14

1) Changes in gray matter
2) synaptogenesis (formation) & synaptic pruning
3) Myelination increase= increase quality and speed of neuron to neuron communication

Question 15

What happens to the brain as you age?

Answer 15

1) grey matter becomes more specialised
2) Nerve cells in the outer layer (cortex) get wrapped with myelin- speed signals
3) communication links, white matter tracts, start to solidify into adult-like structure

Question 16

What is Cortical thinning?

Answer 16

1) increase in grey matter and increase in white matter organization
2) Increased connectivity of important circuitry and pruning of unnecessary synapses
3) Improves quality of neural connections

Question 17

What are the structural brain changes of puberty?

Answer 17

1) Pre- frontal cortex
2) Top-down processing- EF, planning, and decision making
3) Improve connectivity

Question 18

What are the psychological effect of the brain changes during Puberty?

Answer 18

• EF
• Self-regulating
• development of top-down processes
• increase in memory and learning

Question 19

How does puberty affect social-emotional development?

Answer 19

• integrate lots of perspectives
• integrate experiences across contexts
• Deepens ability to understand complex phenomena
• a sense of self becomes more integrated

Question 20

What is the neurobiological take on the sense of self?

Answer 20

• integration of neural circuity
• evaluation associated with the development of ventromedial PFC (inhibition of emotion in decision and self control)

Question 21

How does sex impact PTSD?

Answer 21

Boys= larger volume of grey matter
Girls= small volume of grey matter and surface area
- sexual dimorphism happening between boys and girls

Question 22

What is emotional empathy?

Answer 22

imaging how it felels to be in in another situation

Question 23

What is cognitive empathy?

Answer 23

more rational
thinking about what the other person might be thinking about

Question 24

What allows you to have empathy accuracy?

Answer 24

both cognitive and emotional empathy

Question 25

Why is adolescence important?

Answer 25

highly adaptive
time of neuroplasticity- the brain is malleable interventions ae salient