Studying individual differences in human adolescent brain development

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of social, psychological and biological development. During adolescence, relationships with others become more complex, peer relationships are paramount and social cognition develops substantially. These psychosocial changes are paralleled by structural and functional changes in the brain. Existing research in adolescent neurocognitive development has focused largely on averages, but this obscures meaningful individual variation in development. In this Perspective, we propose that the field should now move toward studying individual differences. We start by discussing individual variation in structural and functional brain development. To illustrate the importance of considering individual differences in development, we consider three sources of variation that contribute to neurocognitive processing: socioeconomic status, culture and peer environment. To assess individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories, large-scale longitudinal datasets are required. Future developmental neuroimaging studies should attempt to characterize individual differences to move toward a more nuanced understanding of neurocognitive changes during adolescence.

Longitudinal development of hippocampal subregions from childhood to adulthood

“…Future studies are needed to further shed light on the functional implications of longitudinal changes in hippocampal subregions, both in terms of development of cognitive functions, and the emergence of mental disorder such as psychosis and depression during adolescence. Finally, we also note that our conclusions from group-level inferences may not translate to individual development, and that appropriate disambiguation of between-and withinperson effects in analyses is an issue that deserves more attention in the developmental cognitive neuroscience field (Foulkes & Blakemore, 2018).…”

Socioeconomic influences on brain function: implications for health

“…12 Further, we need future neuroimaging studies in both adults and children/adolescents to develop a clearer picture for how SES influences brain function at different developmental stages. 33 Finally, it is also important to note that though low SES is a major risk factor for disease morbidity and early mortality, not all individuals from lower SES backgrounds suffer from poor health outcomes. Indeed, recent research is starting to uncover the social, psychological, and biological processes that may confer resilience to low SES circumstances, or the processes that allow some individuals to thrive and live long, healthy lives despite socioeconomic disadvantage.…”

Stress and the brain: Perceived stress mediates the impact of the superior frontal gyrus spontaneous activity on depressive symptoms in late adolescence

“…Notably, in the present study, we focused on a large group of healthy students in late adolescence, which is a transition period characterized by cognitive and affective changes related to the reorganization of brain function and structure (Foulkes & Blakemore, 2018;Konrad, Firk, & Uhlhaas, 2013). Many previous studies have suggested that depressive disorders occur frequently during adolescence and adolescent-onset depressive disorders are related to greater physical health problems, psychosocial impairments and psychiatric comorbidity than adult-onset depressive disorders (Wilson, Hicks, Foster, McGue, & Iacono, 2015).…”