Impact of gonadectomy on maturational changes in brain volume in adolescent macaques.

ABSTRACT: Adolescence is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood characterized by significant changes in global and regional brain tissue volumes. It is also a period of increasing vulnerability to psychiatric illness. The relationship between these patterns and increased levels of circulating sex steroids during adolescence remains unclear. The objective of the current study was to determine whether gonadectomy, prior to puberty, alters adolescent brain development in male rhesus macaques. Ninety-six structural MRI scans were acquired from 12 male rhesus macaques (8 time points per animal over a two-year period). Six animals underwent gonadectomy and 6 animals underwent a sham operation at 29 months of age. Mixed-effects models were used to determine whether gonadectomy altered develo

SUBMITTER: Knickmeyer RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8121100 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature