Elevated Amygdala Perfusion Mediates Developmental Sex Differences in Trait Anxiety.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adolescence is a critical period for emotional maturation and is a time when clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression increase, particularly in females. However, few studies relate developmental differences in symptoms of anxiety and depression to brain development. Cerebral blood flow is one brain phenotype that is known to have marked developmental sex differences.

Methods

We investigated whether developmental sex differences in cerebral blood flow mediated sex differences in anxiety and depression symptoms by capitalizing on a large sample of 875 youths who completed cross-sectional imaging as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. Perfusion was quantified on a voxelwise basis using arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging

SUBMITTER: Kaczkurkin AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5074881 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature