Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Department of Psychology and School of Data Science, University of Virginia, USA.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2023 Apr;60:101236. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101236. Epub 2023 Mar 22.
Early adolescence, with the onset of puberty, is an important period when sex differences in anxiety emerge, with girls reporting significantly higher anxiety symptoms than boys. This study examined the role of puberty on fronto-amygdala functional connectivity and risk of anxiety symptoms in 70 girls (age 11-13) who completed a resting state fMRI scan, self-report measures of anxiety symptoms and pubertal status, and provided basal testosterone levels (64 girls). Resting state fMRI data were preprocessed using fMRIPrep and connectivity indices were extracted from ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala regions-of-interest. We tested moderated mediation models and hypothesized that vmPFC-amygdala would mediate the relation between three indices of puberty (testosterone and adrenarcheal/gonadarcheal development) and anxiety, with puberty moderating the relation between connectivity and anxiety. Results showed a significant moderation effect of testosterone and adrenarcheal development in the right amygdala and a rostral/dorsal area of the vmPFC and of gonadarcheal development in the left amygdala and a medial area of the vmPFC on anxiety symptoms. Simple slope analyses showed that vmPFC-amygdala connectivity was negatively associated with anxiety only in girls more advanced in puberty suggesting that sensitivity to the effects of puberty on fronto-amygdala function could contribute to risk for anxiety disorders among adolescent girls.
青春期早期，随着青春期的开始，是焦虑出现性别差异的重要时期，女孩报告的焦虑症状明显高于男孩。本研究探讨了青春期对额-杏仁核功能连接和焦虑症状风险的影响，研究纳入了 70 名女孩（年龄 11-13 岁），她们完成了静息态 fMRI 扫描、焦虑症状的自我报告测量以及青春期状态和基础睾酮水平（64 名女孩）。静息态 fMRI 数据使用 fMRIPrep 进行预处理，并从腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）和杏仁核感兴趣区提取连接指数。我们测试了调节中介模型，并假设 vmPFC-杏仁核将介导青春期三个指标（睾酮和肾上腺皮质/性腺发育）与焦虑之间的关系，青春期将调节连接与焦虑之间的关系。结果显示，睾酮和肾上腺皮质发育在右侧杏仁核和 vmPFC 的前背侧区域以及性腺发育在左侧杏仁核和 vmPFC 的内侧区域对焦虑症状有显著的调节作用。简单斜率分析表明，只有在青春期进展较快的女孩中，vmPFC-杏仁核的连接才与焦虑呈负相关，这表明对青春期对额-杏仁核功能影响的敏感性可能导致青春期女孩患焦虑障碍的风险增加。
