Sensitive Periods for Social Development in Adolescence: Exploring Mechanisms Relating Experience and Timing to Neural Change
| dc.contributor.advisor | Pfeifer, Jennifer | |
| dc.contributor.author | Cheng, Theresa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-11-23T15:13:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-11-23T15:13:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-11-23 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Social relationships during adolescence have outsized effects on long-term physical and mental health. The theory that adolescence is a sensitive period suggests that adolescent experiences might profoundly shape development. Part of this dissertation reviewed empirical evidence in consideration of the theory that adolescence is a sensitive period for sociocultural development. Despite clearer knowledge about neurodevelopmental and social changes occurring during adolescence, we identified major remaining gaps in our understanding of how adolescent experiences may become neurally embedded in the long-term.The current investigation used pediatric neuroimaging to evaluate evidence for such neural embedding within a frontostriatal circuit thought to undergo protracted development in adolescence (specifically, nucleus accumbens and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). We tested a long-term phasic modeling hypothesis that phasic, task-evoked brain connectivity sculpts or influences more “intrinsic” or baseline measures of connectivity over long developmental times-scales. Adolescent self-disclosure was examined as a candidate process for long-term phasic modeling due to its ubiquity, frequency, and significance in deepening peer relationships, as well as its ability to elicit neural signal within the target circuit. Analyses of data from a longitudinal community sample that recruited adolescent girls (initial N=174; initial ages 10.0-13.0 years, 18 mos. between waves) examined (1) developmental trajectories, (2) developmental mechanisms, and (3) behavioral outcomes associated with frontostriatal connectivity across states of task and rest. Results identified nonlinear puberty-related changes to functional connectivity during self-disclosure and found that this connectivity may be related to friendship quality. However, results did not identify developmental patterns consistent with long-term phasic modeling hypothesis, an alternative (reverse) hypothesis, or with sensitive periods in frontostriatal connectivity. Instead, a developmental pattern consistent with the long-term phasic modeling hypothesis described connectivity between one of the nodes (the nucleus accumbens) and a control region within the primary visual cortex and further suggested that connectivity between these regions may be related to real world friendship behaviors. More work is needed to understand the robustness, specificity, and translational relevance of this effect. This research highlights a viable analysis strategy for examining developmental and sensitive period mechanisms with multiple waves of longitudinal data. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/26883 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | adolescence | en_US |
| dc.subject | fMRI | en_US |
| dc.subject | neurodevelopment | en_US |
| dc.subject | neuroplasticity | en_US |
| dc.subject | peer relationships | en_US |
| dc.title | Sensitive Periods for Social Development in Adolescence: Exploring Mechanisms Relating Experience and Timing to Neural Change | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Psychology | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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