Stress, adolescence, and sex dimorphism

Abstract

Recent studies have revealed that adolescence is a period of intense brain plasticity rendering this developmental stage vulnerable to the deleterious effects of stress on mental health. Stress-sensitive brain regions, involved in cognitive and affective processes, are actively developing during this period, through synaptic pruning, myelination, and connectivity between each other. Specific stress reactivity in adolescence may result from the programming effect of previous early life adversities or from exposure to stressors incurred during the peri-adolescent period. In each case, the outcomes are often sex-specific due to difference in genes present on sex chromosomes, sex-specific parent-of-origin gene expression as well as the influence of gonadal hormones that impact brain maturation during development and around puberty. Misreporting of sex dimorphism still exist and need to be solved by better training. More longitudinal clinical analyses are awaited to separate the effect of cumulative stress to the ones occurring specifically at adolescence.