Puberty is a period of substantial hormonal fluctuations that induce dramatic physical, neurological, and behavioral changes. Previous research has demonstrated that pubertal hormones modulate cortical development, as well as sex- and age-specific patterns of cognitive development during childhood and adolescence. However, the influence of pubertal hormones on the brain’s functional development, specifically neural oscillatory dynamics, has yet to be fully examined. Thus, in the current study, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate the oscillatory dynamics serving visuospatial perception and attention, and testosterone levels and chronological age as measures of development. Within a sample of typically developing youth, age was associated with changes in alpha, theta, and gamma oscillatory activity. Novel testosterone-by-sex interactions in the gamma range were identified in critical areas of the visual and attention networks. Females had increased gamma activity with increasing testosterone in the right temporal-parietal junction and occipital cortices, while males showed increased gamma activity in the right insula with increasing testosterone. These findings reveal robust developmental alterations in the oscillatory dynamics serving visuospatial processing during childhood and adolescence and provide novel insight into the hormonal basis of sexually dimorphic patterns of functional brain development during the pubertal transition that is at least partially mediated by endogenous testosterone.

中文翻译：

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青春期睾酮跟踪服务于视觉空间处理的神经振荡活动的发育轨迹。

青春期是荷尔蒙大量波动的时期，会引起剧烈的生理、神经和行为变化。先前的研究表明，青春期激素调节皮质发育，以及儿童和青春期认知发展的性别和年龄特异性模式。然而，青春期激素对大脑功能发育的影响，特别是神经振荡动力学，还有待充分研究。因此，在目前的研究中，我们使用脑磁图来研究服务于视觉空间感知和注意力的振荡动力学，以及作为发育衡量标准的睾酮水平和实足年龄。在典型发育的青年样本中，年龄与 alpha、theta 和 gamma 振荡活动的变化有关。在视觉和注意力网络的关键区域确定了伽马范围内的新型睾酮-性别相互作用。女性的伽马活性随着右侧颞顶叶交界处和枕叶皮质的睾酮增加而增加，而男性在右侧岛叶的伽马活性随着睾酮的增加而增加。这些发现揭示了在儿童和青春期服务于视觉空间处理的振荡动力学的强烈发育改变，并为青春期过渡期间功能性大脑发育的性二态模式的激素基础提供了新的见解，至少部分由内源性睾酮介导。