PhD Scientific Days 2026

Mental Health Sciences 1.

Pubertal timing and differential vulnerability in adolescent cognitive development

Előadó neve

Gyöngyi, Oláh, MSc

Neptune code

U65XL2

Előadó munkahelye

HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group

Előadó telefonszáma

06304738130

Előadó e-mail címe

gyongyiii.olah@gmail.com

Az előadás címe

Pubertal timing and differential vulnerability in adolescent cognitive development

Szerző(k) neve és munkahelye

Oláh Gyöngyi¹

1: HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group

Bemutatás módja

Szóbeli

Szekció

Mental Health Sciences 1.

Language of the presentation

English

Preferred session

Mental Health Sciences

Összefoglaló szövege

Adolescence is a sensitive period where biological maturation and environmental inputs interact to shape neurocognitive trajectories. Chronological age (CA) obscures individual differences in pubertal timing. Ultrasonic bone age assessment provides a reliable biomarker of pubertal maturity (Kovács et al., 2022), enabling precise dissociation of biological age (BA) from CA.
This work aimed to dissociate the independent effects of BA and CA on cognitive abilities; map maturity-specific developmental trajectories across adolescence; and evaluate how pubertal timing moderates cognitive vulnerability to environmental stressors, specifically COVID-19 disruptions.
A cohort of adolescent females completed WISC-IV cognitive testing before and after the pandemic. BA was determined via ultrasonic bone age assessment; BA–CA differences defined maturity groups.
BA independently predicted working memory and processing speed, while CA predicted verbal comprehension. Accelerated maturation provided a transient advantage in working memory and processing speed (ages 12–15), while crystallized trajectories did not differ across groups under stable conditions. COVID-19 disruptions selectively impaired verbal comprehension, while fluid abilities remained resilient. Pubertal timing strongly moderated these effects: accelerated adolescents showed resilience; the average group had transient setbacks. The decelerated group, whose steepest verbal growth coincided with the pandemic, showed the most severe and sustained deviations into early adulthood.
These findings demonstrate that BA and CA contribute differently across domains: BA drives fluid abilites and CA is linked to verbal abilities. Crucially, fluid abilities remained resilient, but experience-dependent verbal skills were impaired by environmental stressors. Pubertal timing shapes these windows of vulnerability: adolescents in their steepest developmental phase are most susceptible to lasting setbacks when disruption coincides with this peak. This underscores the need for biological maturity screening to identify at-risk adolescents during critical developmental windows.
Funding: National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (Grant K-134370 to I.K.), Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group), PPKE-BTK-KUT-23-1 (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, PPCU).

University

Semmelweis University

Supervisor

Ilona Kovács

Publication of my abstract

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

phd.section.field

after finishing doctoral studies with absolutorium (PhD)

Kind

Szabad

Status

elfogadva

Accepted presentation method

szóbeli

Előadás fájl jóváhagyás

nem rendelkezett róla

Előadó

8256

Start

15:30

End

15:40