title: Different patterns of puberty effect in neural oscillation to negative stimuli: sex differences.
abstract: The present study investigated the impact of puberty on sex differences in neural sensitivity to negative stimuli. Event-related oscillation technique was used. Because girls are more vulnerable to affective disturbances than boys during adolescence, it was hypothesized that puberty exerts different influences on neural sensitivity to negative stimuli in boys and girls. EEGs were recorded for highly negative (HN), mildly negative (MN) and neutral pictures, when boys and girls distinct in pubertal status performed a non-emotional distracting task. No emotion effect and its interaction with sex and puberty were observed in response latencies. However, puberty influenced the gamma-band oscillation effect for negative stimuli differently for boys and girls: Pre-pubertal boys showed a significant emotion effect for HN stimuli, whose size was decreased in pubertal boys. By contrast, there was a significant emotion effect for HN stimuli in pubertal girls but not in pre-pubertal girls. On the other hand, the size of the emotion effect for HN stimuli was similar for pre-pubertal boys and girls; while this effect was significantly more pronounced in pubertal girls compared to pubertal boys. Additionally, the size of the emotion effect in gamma oscillations decreased as a function of pubertal development during both HN and MN stimulation in boys. For girls, the emotion effect in gamma oscillations increased with pubertal development during HN stimulation. Thus, puberty is associated with reduced neural sensitivity in boys but increased sensitivity in girls, in reaction to negative stimuli. The implications of these results for the psychopathology during adolescence were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, No. 1 of Tiansheng Road, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715 China.
authors.forename: Jiajin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Preschool Education College, Wanzhou, Chongqing, 404047 China.
authors.forename: Enxia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Southwest University, No. 1 of Tiansheng Road, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715 China.
authors.forename: Jiemin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Psychology in Shaanxi Province, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062 China.
authors.forename: Xuhai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Psychological Development and Education, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, Liaoning, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Emotional sensitivity; Event-related brain oscillations (ERO); Pubertal transition; Sex differences