| Popis: |
This chapter reviews the remodeling of the prefrontal cortex during adolescence, which occurs in both humans and rats. Other neural regions involved in cognitive behavior are also affected, but the majority of evidence at this time comes from the prefrontal cortex where synapses, dendrites, and neurons are pruned while myelination of the underlying white matter increases. There are studies that indicate at least some of these changes are triggered by the hormones of puberty. The most definitive of these are in rats where the ovarian hormones have been implicated. The neural remodeling during adolescence also influences cognitive behavior, again with some evidence for puberty initiating the change. Future studies examining cognitive behavior during adolescence should account for pubertal status and for the sex difference in the age of pubertal onset, since this may be at least as important chronological age. |
