MSGID: 1:317/3 6434e265   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    New insights on brain development sequence through adolescence    
    Brain maturation sequence renders youth sensitive to environmental   
   impacts through adolescence    
      
     Date:   
         April 10, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine   
     Summary:   
         Brain development does not occur uniformly across the brain, but   
         follows a newly identified developmental sequence, according to   
         a new study.   
      
         Brain regions that support cognitive, social, and emotional   
         functions appear to remain malleable -- or capable of changing,   
         adapting, and remodeling -- longer than other brain regions,   
         rendering youth sensitive to socioeconomic environments through   
         adolescence.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Brain development does not occur uniformly across the brain, but   
   follows a newly identified developmental sequence, according to a new   
   Penn Medicine study. Brain regions that support cognitive, social, and   
   emotional functions appear to remain malleable -- or capable of changing,   
   adapting, and remodeling -- longer than other brain regions, rendering   
   youth sensitive to socioeconomic environments through adolescence. The   
   findings were published recently in Nature Neuroscience.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Researchers charted how developmental processes unfold across the human   
   brain from the ages of 8 to 23 years old through magnetic resonance   
   imaging (MRI).   
      
   The findings indicate a new approach to understanding the order in which   
   individual brain regions show reductions in plasticity during development.   
      
   Brain plasticity refers to the capacity for neural circuits -- connections   
   and pathways in the brain for thought, emotion, and movement -- to change   
   or reorganize in response to internal biological signals or the external   
   environment. While it is generally understood that children have higher   
   brain plasticity than adults, this study provides new insights into   
   where and when reductions in plasticity occur in the brain throughout   
   childhood and adolescence.   
      
   The findings reveal that reductions in brain plasticity occur earliest in   
   "sensory-motor" regions, such as visual and auditory regions, and occur   
   later in "associative" regions, such as those involved in higher-order   
   thinking (problem solving and social learning). As a result, brain   
   regions that support executive, social, and emotional functions appear   
   to be particularly malleable and responsive to the environment during   
   early adolescence, as plasticity occurs later in development.   
      
   "Studying brain development in the living human brain is challenging. A   
   lot of neuroscientists' understanding about brain plasticity during   
   development actually comes from studies conducted with rodents. But   
   rodent brains do not have many of what we refer to as the association   
   regions of the human brain, so we know less about how these important   
   areas develop," said corresponding author Theodore D. Satterthwaite,   
   MD, the McLure Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Perelman School   
   of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Penn   
   Lifespan Informatics and Neuroimaging Center (PennLINC).   
      
   To address this challenge, the researchers focused on comparing insights   
   from previous rodent studies to youth MRI imaging insights. Prior research   
   examining how neural circuits behave when they are plastic uncovered   
   that brain plasticity is linked to a unique pattern of "intrinsic"   
   brain activity.   
      
   Intrinsic activity is the neural activity occurring in a part of the brain   
   when it is at rest, or not being engaged by external stimuli or a mental   
   task. When a brain region is less developed and more plastic, there tends   
   to be more intrinsic activity within the region, and that activity also   
   tends to be more synchronized. This is because more neurons in the region   
   are active, and they tend to be active at the same time. As a result,   
   measurements of brain activity waves show an increase in amplitude(or   
   height).   
      
   "Imagine that individual neurons within a region of the brain are   
   like instruments in an orchestra. As more instruments begin to play   
   together in synchrony, the sound level of the orchestra increases, and   
   the amplitude of the sound wave gets higher," said first author Valerie   
   Sydnor,a Neuroscience PhD student. "Just like decibel meters can measure   
   the amplitude of a sound wave, the amplitude of intrinsic brain activity   
   can be measured with functional MRI while kids are simply resting in the   
   scanner. This allowed our team to study a functional marker of brain   
   plasticity safely and non-invasively in youth."  Analyzing MRI scans   
   from more than 1,000 individuals, the authors found that the functional   
   marker of brain plasticity declined in earlier childhood in sensory-motor   
   regions but did not decline until mid-adolescence in associative regions.   
      
   "These slow-developing associative regions are also those that are vital   
   for children's cognitive attainment, social interactions, and emotional   
   well- being," Satterthwaite added. "We are really starting to understand   
   the uniqueness of human's prolonged developmental program."  "If a brain   
   region remains malleable for longer, it may also remain sensitive to   
   environmental influences for a longer window of development," Sydnor said.   
      
   "This study found evidence for just that."  The authors studied   
   relationships between youths' socioeconomic environments and the same   
   functional marker of plasticity. They found that the effects of the   
   environment on the brain were not uniform across regions nor static   
   across development. Rather, the effects of the environment on the brain   
   changed as the identified developmental sequence progressed.   
      
   Critically, youths' socioeconomic environments generally had a larger   
   impact on brain development in the late-maturing associative brain   
   regions, and the impact was found to be largest in adolescence.   
      
   "This work lays the foundation for understanding how the environment   
   shapes neurodevelopmental trajectories even through the teenage years,"   
   said Bart Larsen, PhD, a PennLINC postdoctoral researcher and co-author.   
      
   Sydnor elaborated, "The hope is that studying developmental plasticity   
   will help us to understand when environmental enrichment programs   
   will have a beneficial impact on each child's neurodevelopmental   
   trajectory. Our findings support that programs designed to alleviate   
   disparities in youths' socioeconomic environments remain important for   
   brain development throughout the adolescent period."  This study was   
   supported by the National Institute of Health (R01MH113550, R01MH120482,   
   R01MH112847, R01MH119219, R01MH123563, R01MH119185, R01MH120174,   
   R01NS060910, R01EB022573, RF1MH116920., RF1MH121867, R37MH125829,   
   R34DA050297, K08MH120564, K99MH127293, T32MH014654). The study was also   
   supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship   
   (DGE-1845298).   
      
   Additional support was provided by the Penn-CHOP Lifespan Brain Institute   
   and the Penn Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics.   
      
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                   # Brain_Tumor # Nervous_System # Psychology_Research #   
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             o Mind_&_Brain   
                   # Brain-Computer_Interfaces # Intelligence # Brain_Injury   
                   # Child_Development   
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             o Brain_damage o Psycholinguistics o Traumatic_brain_injury   
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   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_Pennsylvania_School_of_Medicine. Note: Content may be   
   edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Valerie J. Sydnor, Bart Larsen, Jakob Seidlitz, Azeez Adebimpe,   
      Aaron F.   
      
         Alexander-Bloch, Dani S. Bassett, Maxwell A. Bertolero, Matthew   
         Cieslak, Sydney Covitz, Yong Fan, Raquel E. Gur, Ruben C. Gur,   
         Allyson P. Mackey, Tyler M. Moore, David R. Roalf, Russell   
         T. Shinohara, Theodore D.   
      
         Satterthwaite. Intrinsic activity development unfolds along   
         a sensorimotor-association cortical axis in youth. Nature   
         Neuroscience, 2023; 26 (4): 638 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01282-y   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230410132201.htm   
      
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