Adolescence, Puberty, and Emotion Regulation
Condition: Mood Disorder; Neurobehavioral Manifestation; Healthy
MeSH terms: Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Mood Disorders
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to use brain imaging technology to compare how the brains of
      adolescents and adults are activated during tasks that involve emotional responses.

      Evidence suggests that adolescents and adults experience activation in similar brain regions
      when they engage in tasks that involve the processing of emotional stimuli. However, the
      degree of task-associated activation may differ between adolescents and adults. This study
      will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activation patterns in
      adolescents and adults. This study will also be used to develop emotion-evoking fMRI tasks to
      determine whether there are puberty and age-linked components of brain development.
    

Detailed description: 
      The goal of this project is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare
      the degree to which brain regions of adolescents and adults with and without steroid-related
      endocrine disorders are engaged by tasks involving processing of emotionally salient stimuli.
      In healthy subjects, based on developmental continuities in the relevant psychological
      processes, we anticipate considerable similarity across age groups in the topography of brain
      regions engaged by relevant tasks. However, we hypothesize that developmental differences in
      cortico-limbic circuits of adolescents and adults will be reflected in patterns of fMRI
      activation. Specifically, we hypothesize in both adults and adolescents that attention and
      memory tasks involving the processing of emotionally salient stimuli will engage the
      amygdala, cingulate gyrus, and association cortex of medial/inferior prefrontal cortex and
      temporal regions. Nevertheless, height of task-associated activation is hypothesized to
      differ between adolescents and adults within these regions. Moreover, prior studies
      distinguish puberty vs. age-related aspects of cognitive development: some aspects of
      attention or memory development relate to changes in chronological age whereas other aspects,
      particularly those involving emotional processes, relate to pubertal status. Therefore, we
      expect eventually to use emotion-evoking fMRI tasks to test hypotheses on the presence of
      complementary, distinguishable puberty vs. age-related components of brain development. In
      patients with endocrine disorders, we expect to identify abnormal brain function related to
      defects in steroidogenesis, including in utero hyperandrogenism and hypocortisolism seen in
      Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), congenital male hyperandrogenism seen in familial male
      precocious puberty (FMPP), and hypercortisolism seen as Cushing's Syndrome (CS).

      To meet these initial goals, we developed and tested a number of attention/emotion tasks in
      healthy adults and healthy adolescents, tested systematically a few of these tasks in the
      fMRI, including a face-emotion processing task, an affective picture- processing task, a
      threat bias task, a dot-probe task, a reward-related task, and tasks probing social
      processing. We are now entering the 2nd phase of the protocol, in which we are focusing on
      endocrine disorders, CAH, FMPP and CS. We hypothesize that both face-emotion processing task,
      an affective picture- processing task will engage the amygdala, cingulate gyrus, and
      association cortices of the medial/inferior prefrontal and temporal regions differently as a
      function of time of occurrence, severity, and type of endocrine abnormalities.
    

Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Retrospective
Keywords: Depression; Anxiety; CAH; Adults; FMPP; Emotion; Cushing's Syndrome; Adolescence; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; fMRI; Healthy Volunteer; HV; MRI