The effects of age, sex, and hormones on emotional conflict-related brain response during adolescence

Abstract

While cognitive and emotional systems both undergo development during adolescence, few studies have explored top-down inhibitory control brain activity in the context of affective processing, critical to informing adolescent psychopathology. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain response during an Emotional Conflict (EmC) Task across 10–15-year-old youth. During the EmC Task, participants indicated the emotion of facial expressions, while disregarding emotion-congruent and incongruent words printed across the faces. We examined the relationships of age, sex, and gonadal hormones with brain activity on Incongruent vs. Congruent trials. Age was negatively associated with middle frontal gyrus activity, controlling for performance and movement confounds. Sex differences were present in occipital and parietal cortices, and were driven by activation in females, and deactivation in males to Congruent trials. Testosterone was negatively related with frontal and striatal brain response in males, and cerebellar and precuneus response in females. Estradiol was negatively related with fronto-cerebellar, cingulate, and precuneus brain activity in males, and positively related with occipital response in females. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the effects of age, sex, and sex steroids during an emotion-cognition task in adolescents. Further research is needed to examine longitudinal development of emotion-cognition interactions and deviations in psychiatric disorders in adolescence.

Puberty and structural brain development in humans

“…As previously alluded to, timing and tempo of pubertal maturation has been linked with various psychological outcomes, including internalizing behaviors (Mendle, Leve et al 2014) and depression (Angold, Costello et al 1998, Angold, Costello et al 1999). Additional evidence for this idea stems from functional MRI studies linking pubertal development and sex steroids to emotional and social processing (Pfeifer, Kahn et al 2013, Spielberg, Olino et al 2014, Pagliaccio, Luby et al 2015, Spielberg, Forbes et al 2015), emotional-cognitive interactions (Cservenka, Stroup et al 2015, Tyborowska, Volman et al 2016), and risk and reward processing (Op de Macks, Gunther Moor et al 2011, Braams, van Duijvenvoorde et al. 2015, LeMoult, Colich et al 2015).…”

Affective reactivity during adolescence: Associations with age, puberty and testosterone

“…We also examined the role of testosterone in neural changes. These analyses were conducted in each sex separately, a strategy employed by prior neuroimaging research on puberty (e.g., 49,50), given the differing role of testosterone in pubertal maturation within males and females (51,52). That is, any given concentration of testosterone is likely to have different implications for pubertal maturation in males and females, and as such, it does not seem valid to statistically compare the two sexes.…”

Sex differences in brain and behavior in adolescence: Findings from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort

“…Of note, hormonal effects have been occasionally evaluated with fMRI (e.g. Alcaron et al, 2014; Goddings et al, 2012; Cservenka et al, 2015), as described below.…”

“…In addition to hormonal relations to structural brain parameters, highlighted above, some studies with fMRI likewise made efforts to evaluate pubertal status in relation to brain function (e. g., Forbes, et al, 2011; Klapwijk et al, 2013; Moore et al, 2012), including hormonal levels (e.g., Alcaron et al, 2014; Goddings et al, 2012; Cservenka et al, 2015). The convergence of brain measures with evaluation of hormonal studies will contribute to elucidating the mechanisms underlying sex differences.…”