Nature Neuroscience7, 1040 - 1047 (2004)
Published online: 27 September 2004; | doi:10.1038/nn1326
The neural basis of puberty and adolescence
Cheryl L Sisk1
& Douglas L Foster2
1
Neuroscience Program and Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
2
Reproductive Sciences Program, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Cheryl L Sisk sisk@msu.edu
The pubertal transition to adulthood involves both gonadal and behavioral maturation. A developmental clock, along with permissive signals that provide information on somatic growth, energy balance and season, time the awakening of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons at the onset of puberty. High-frequency GnRH release results from disinhibition and activation of GnRH neurons at puberty onset, leading to gametogenesis and an increase in gonadal steroid hormone secretion. Steroid hormones, in turn, both remodel and activate neural circuits during adolescent brain development, leading to the development of sexual salience of sensory stimuli, sexual motivation, and expression of copulatory behaviors in specific social contexts. These influences of hormones on reproductive behavior depend in part on changes in the adolescent brain that occur independently of gonadal maturation. Reproductive maturity is therefore the product of developmentally timed, brain-driven and recurrent interactions between steroid hormones and the adolescent nervous system.
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