Development of subcortical volumes across adolescence in males and females: A multisample study of longitudinal changes

Megan M Herting; Cory Johnson; Kathryn L Mills; Nandita Vijayakumar; Meg Dennison; Chang Liu; Anne-Lise Goddings; Ronald E Dahl; Elizabeth R Sowell; Sarah Whittle; Nicholas B Allen; Christian K Tamnes

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.01.020

Development of subcortical volumes across adolescence in males and females: A multisample study of longitudinal changes

Neuroimage. 2018 May 15:172:194-205. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.01.020. Epub 2018 Feb 3.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: herting@usc.edu.
² Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
⁴ Phoenix Australia: Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
⁶ Institute of Human Development, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia.
⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

The developmental patterns of subcortical brain volumes in males and females observed in previous studies have been inconsistent. To help resolve these discrepancies, we examined developmental trajectories using three independent longitudinal samples of participants in the age-span of 8-22 years (total 216 participants and 467 scans). These datasets, including Pittsburgh (PIT; University of Pittsburgh, USA), NeuroCognitive Development (NCD; University of Oslo, Norway), and Orygen Adolescent Development Study (OADS; The University of Melbourne, Australia), span three countries and were analyzed together and in parallel using mixed-effects modeling with both generalized additive models and general linear models. For all regions and across all samples, males were found to have significantly larger volumes as compared to females, and significant sex differences were seen in age trajectories over time. However, direct comparison of sample trajectories and sex differences identified within samples were not consistent. The trajectories for the amygdala, putamen, and nucleus accumbens were most consistent between the three samples. Our results suggest that even after using similar preprocessing and analytic techniques, additional factors, such as image acquisition or sample composition may contribute to some of the discrepancies in sex specific patterns in subcortical brain changes across adolescence, and highlight region-specific variations in congruency of developmental trajectories.

Keywords: Adolescence; Amygdala; Hippocampus; Longitudinal; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neurodevelopment; Replication; Sex differences; Subcortical.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Development*
Brain / diagnostic imaging*
Brain / growth & development*
Datasets as Topic
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
Longitudinal Studies
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Male
Neuroimaging / methods
Sex Characteristics*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding