“Testosterone differently influences emotion control during adolescence compared to young adulthood - in the same individuals,” says Tyborowska, assistant professor of Clinical Psychology at Radboud University. The study was part of the Nijmegen Longitudinal Study (NLS) at the Behavioural Science Institute, which has followed individuals for the past 25 years, since they were 1 year old.
Testosterone and maturational processes
“Typically, testosterone tends to be associated with aggression or dominant behavior, whereas in fact it has a number of different roles across different developmental periods,” Tyborowska explains. “The findings of the current study are important for understanding differences in young people growing up, related to joint brain – hormone functioning.
The anterior prefrontal cortex is an important region for emotional control in adults. Previous studies show that higher testosterone levels during adolescence are associated with increased involvement of the brain’s anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) in emotion control, but the opposite effect occurs during adulthood. In the current study published in Developmental Science, researchers investigated these seemingly contradictory findings by conducting brain imaging scans in the same individuals during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and young adulthood.
Shift around age 20
During adolescence, testosterone is a hormone that’s associated with pubertal maturation. Higher testosterone levels are related to being ‘more mature’. In this study, 14-year-old adolescents with higher testosterone levels, or a greater level of maturity, showed stronger activity in the anterior prefrontal cortex during actions requiring more emotional control. These adolescents were activating more adult-like regions of the brain for control. By age 17, late adolescence, testosterone becomes less and less of a pubertal hormone.
Around the age of 20, however, testosterone’s role changes to a hormone that is temporarily activating certain responses, such as dominance, aggression, or other behaviors related to social actions. On the neural level, higher testosterone levels were related to less engagement of the aPFC during emotion control – in the same individuals that were assessed during adolescence.
The findings suggest that the function of testosterone seems to change within individuals across adolescence and adulthood. The study’s investigators note that many mood disorders tend to arise during adolescence, and additional research may reveal whether alterations in the relationship between testosterone and the brain may be related to this.