Sexual Risk-taking and Subcortical Brain Volume in Adolescence

Overview

Journal Ann Behav Med

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2018 Apr 17

PMID 29659656

Citations 5

Authors

Sarah W Feldstein Ewing

Karen A Hudson

Justin Caouette

Andrew R Mayer

Rachel E Thayer

Sephira G Ryman

Angela D Bryan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The developmental period of adolescence marks the initiation of new socioemotional and physical behaviors, including sexual intercourse. However, little is known about neurodevelopmental influences on adolescent sexual decision-making.

Purpose: We sought to determine how subcortical brain volume correlated with condom use, and whether those associations differed by gender and pubertal development.

Methods: We used FreeSurfer to extract subcortical volume among N = 169 sexually experienced youth (mean age 16.07 years; 31.95% female). We conducted multiple linear regressions to examine the relationship between frequency of condom use and subcortical volume, and whether these associations would be moderated by gender and pubertal development.

Results: We found that the relationship between brain volume and condom use was better accounted for by pubertal development than by gender, and moderated the association between limbic brain volume and condom use. No significant relationships were observed in reward areas (e.g., nucleus accumbens) or prefrontal cortical control areas.

Conclusions: These data highlight the potential relevance of subcortical socioemotional processing structures in adolescents' sexual decision-making.

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Puberty and the human brain: Insights into adolescent development.

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Featured Article: Adolescent Condom Use and Connectivity in the Social-Planful Brain.

Caouette J, Hudson K, Bryan A, Feldstein Ewing S J Pediatr Psychol. 2018; 43(8):821-830.

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Neural Correlates of Risky Sex and Response Inhibition in High-Risk Adolescents.

Hansen N, Thayer R, Feldstein Ewing S, Sabbineni A, Bryan A J Res Adolesc. 2018; 28(1):56-69.

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