title: The onset of puberty: effects on the psychophysiology of defensive and appetitive motivation.
abstract: We examined puberty-specific effects on affect-related behavior and on the psychophysiology of defensive and appetitive motivation while controlling for age. Adolescents (N = 94, ages = 12 and 13 years) viewed 75 pictures (International Affective Picture System: pleasant, neutral, and aversive) while listening to auditory probes. Startle response and postauricular (PA) reflex were collected as measures of defensive and appetitive motivation, respectively. Pubertal status and measures of anxiety/stress reaction and sensation/thrill seeking were obtained. Mid-/late pubertal adolescents showed enhanced startle amplitude across all picture valences. A Puberty x Valence interaction revealed that mid-/late pubertal adolescents showed appetitive potentiation of the PA, whereas pre-/early pubertal adolescents showed no modulation of the PA reflex. Mid-/late pubertal adolescents also scored significantly higher on measures of sensation/thrill seeking than did their pre-/early pubertal peers and puberty moderated the association between psychophysiology and behavioral measures, suggesting that it plays a role in reorganizing defensive and appetitive motivational systems.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota, USA. queve001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Karina M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Quevedo
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Benning
authors.forename: Megan R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gunnar
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dahl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety; D001066:Appetite; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001767:Blinking; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013216:Reflex, Startle; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012677:Sensation; D014796:Visual Perception
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones