PhD Scientific Days 2023

Mental Health Sciences I.

Maturational Status and Hierarchical Organization in the Adolescent Brain

Előadó neve

Miriam Hanna, Szakács

Neptun code

VA9CD7

Előadó munkahelye

Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Laboratory for Psychological Research

Előadó telefonszáma

06309520787

Előadó e-mail címe

szakacs.miriam.hanna@btk.ppke.hu

Az előadás címe

Maturational Status and Hierarchical Organization in the Adolescent Brain

Szerző(k) neve és munkahelye

Hanna Szakács1,2, Murat Can Mutlu3,4, Gustavo Deco5,6,7, Jochen Braun3,4, Giulio Balestrieri, Ferenc Gombos2,8, Ilona Kovács8,9
1 Doctoral School of Mental Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest 1085, Hungary
2 Laboratory for Psychological Research, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest 1088, Hungary
3 Institute of Biology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
4 Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke University,
39120 Magdeburg, Germany
5 Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08005, Spain
6 Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08018, Spain
7 Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona 08010, Spain
8 ELRN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group, 1 Mikszáth Kálmán square
9 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest 1075, Hungary

Bemutatás módja

Szóbeli

Szekció

Mental Health Sciences I.

Language of the presentation

English

Preferred session

Mental Sciences

Összefoglaló szövege

Introduction: The adolescent brain undergoes a long period of maturation, making it fit for learning and advancing skills, but also vulnerable to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or schizophrenia. While there is accumulating evidence that pubertal hormones play a role in the brain’s cortical reorganization during adolescence, the underlying mechanism and its link to mental health is not clear yet. To find out more about cognitive functioning and mental health in adolescence, it’s crucial to employ paradigms which enable the differentiation between effects of age and of maturation.
Aims: Our aim is to investigate the link between physical maturation expressed by bone age, and hierarchical organization in the brain indexed by production entropy.
Methods: To identify adolescents of different maturational levels, we employed our recently published framework, which uses ultrasonic bone age assessment to define each subject’s maturational level expressed in bone age (BA) compared to their chronological age (CA). Our sample consisted of adolescent females between 11 and 15 years, classified into maturational groups: advanced (ADV; BA>CA), average (AVG; BA=CA) and delayed (DEL; BA<CA). Participants underwent resting state electroencephalography (EEG) recording in a laboratory setting. We combined maturational assessment with an algorithm that reveals phase-locked connectivity patterns in EEG signals, and production entropy calculation, indexing the level of hierarchical organization in the brain.
Results: Mean production entropy values were calculated for each maturational group. According to permutation tests, production entropy in AVG groups is significantly larger than DEL (p<0.05), and larger than ADV groups.
Conclusion: A larger entropy, observed in the AVG group, implies a more efficient neural functioning. This pattern is especially important considering the significant prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents. Our results suggest that an average maturational trajectory, in which bone age and chronological age are roughly equal, might be optimal, as the pathways of information flow might be better established. This could imply greater mental flexibility needed to sustain mental health.
Funding: Research is funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (OTKA grant number K_20 134370) to Ilona Kovács.

University and Doctoral School

Semmelweis University, Doctoral School of Mental Health Sciences

Supervisor

Dr. Ilona Kovács

Publication of my abstract

I do not give consent to the publication of my abstract on the website of the congress.

Kind

Szabad

Status

elfogadva

Accepted presentation method

szóbeli

Előadás fájl jóváhagyás

nem rendelkezett róla

Előadó

7391

Start

14:45

End

15:00

Authors (legacy)

Hanna Szakács1,2, Murat Can Mutlu3,4, Gustavo Deco5,6,7, Jochen Braun3,4, Giulio Balestrieri, Ferenc Gombos2,8, Ilona Kovács8,9
1 Doctoral School of Mental Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest 1085, Hungary
2 Laboratory for Psychological Research, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest 1088, Hungary
3 Institute of Biology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
4 Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke University,
39120 Magdeburg, Germany
5 Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08005, Spain
6 Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08018, Spain
7 Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona 08010, Spain
8 ELRN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group, 1 Mikszáth Kálmán square
9 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest 1075, Hungary