Brain development
How do brain connections change during teenage puberty?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
As young people grow up, connections between emotional brain centers and thinking brain regions weaken, a process driven more by puberty than age.
Key findings
The study found that a quarter of the connections between deep subcortical structures and the prefrontal cortex weakened over time, whereas connections within cortical networks and within subcortical networks became stronger. Crucially, pubertal development was a better predictor of this decoupling than chronological age for several major neural pathways, such as the connection between the nucleus accumbens and the frontal medial cortex in boys. For girls, physical puberty predicted decreased connectivity between the caudate and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex even after accounting for their starting age.
Methodology
Researchers tracked 273 participants aged 8 to 29 over three testing waves. They measured resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to look at brain connectivity and used the self-reported Pubertal Development Scale to evaluate physical maturity. The study focused on the functional coupling between subcortical structures like the nucleus accumbens and amygdala, and cortical regions of the medial prefrontal cortex.
Limitations
While this longitudinal study demonstrates physical changes over time, it cannot establish whether pubertal hormones directly cause these neural changes or if they are co-occurring processes. The puberty measurements relied on a subjective self-report questionnaire rather than objective hormone levels, which may introduce reporting bias or inaccuracies. Furthermore, the individual consistency of the brain scans over time was relatively low, with intraclass correlation values ranging between 0.08 and 0.33, meaning individual differences in development remain difficult to track reliably with this method.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
During adolescent development, resting-state functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and cortical regions like the frontal medial cortex undergoes a decoupling process that is predicted more strongly by pubertal maturity than by chronological age.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
During adolescence and young adulthood, functional pathways between subcortical emotional centers and prefrontal cortical regions undergo significant decoupling, a developmental process that is better predicted by physical pubertal maturation than chronological age.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
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