Title: System-level cortical maturation links to adolescent resilience to adverse life events.
Session: Oral Session
Speaker: Meike Hettwer
Abstract: Adolescence is a period of increased brain reorganization that is essential to biological and psychosocial maturation, but also to mental health (Paus Nat Rev Neurosci, 2008). Here, we investigated how intra-individual change in individuals' ability to cope with environmental stressors during adolescence is linked to microstructural maturation. Increasing resilience during adolescence links to a higher rate of myelin-sensitive MT change and maintained levels of functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex. This points to a role of the PFC in adaptation to adversity exposure rather than exposure per se (Pollok et al. - Neurosci Biobehav Rev - 2022). Maturation of PFC top-down cognitive / affective control circuits may thus be a promising target for interventions facilitating mental health in adolescents exposed to adversity (Eaton et al. - Neurosci Biobehav Rev - 2022). In comparatively more adaptive individuals, development of a heteromodal frontoparietal midline was more closely drawn towards the anchors of a principal axis of microstructural developmentand more closely coupled to microstructural patterns already set-up early during adolescence. Though microstructural differentiation is associated with cognitive maturation and enhancement of e.g. executive function (Baum et al. - Current Biology - 2017), our findings point towards a benefit of a ‘less is more’ strategy that follows paths existing already early during adolescence.

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