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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 17, 2008, 28(38):9519-9524; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1212-08.2008

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Brief Communications
Growth of White Matter in the Adolescent Brain: Role of Testosterone and Androgen Receptor

Jennifer S. Perrin,¹ Pierre-Yves Hervé,¹ Gabriel Leonard,² Michel Perron,⁴ G. Bruce Pike,² Alain Pitiot,¹ Louis Richer,⁵ Suzanne Veillette,⁴ Zdenka Pausova,^1,3 and Tomá Paus^1,2

¹Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom, ²Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4, ³Centre de recherche, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2L 4M1, ⁴Le Groupe d'étude des conditions de vie et des besoins de la population (ÉCOBES), Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel (CÉGEP) Jonquiere, Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada G7X 3W1, and ⁵Department of Psychology, University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada

Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Tomá Paus, Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Email: tomas.paus{at}nottingham.ac.uk

The growth of white matter during human adolescence shows a striking sexual dimorphism; the volume of white matter increases with age slightly in girls and steeply in boys. Here, we provide evidence supporting the role of androgen receptor (AR) in mediating the effect of testosterone on white matter. In a large sample of typically developing adolescents (n = 408, 204 males), we used magnetic resonance imaging and acquired T1-weighted and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) images. We also measured plasma levels of testosterone and genotyped a functional polymorphism in the AR gene, namely the number of CAG repeats in exon 1 believed to be inversely proportional to the AR transcriptional activity. We found that the testosterone-related increase of white-matter volume was stronger in male adolescents with the lower versus higher number of CAG repeats in the AR gene, with testosterone explaining, respectively, 26 and 8% of variance in the volume. The MTR results suggest that this growth is not related to myelination; the MTR decreased with age in male adolescents. We speculate that testosterone affects axonal caliber rather than the thickness of the myelin sheath.

Key words: adolescence; brain; MRI; myelination; depression; axonal caliber

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Received March 20, 2008; revised Aug. 12, 2008; accepted Aug. 19, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Tomá Paus, Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Email: tomas.paus{at}nottingham.ac.uk

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. C. Knickmeyer, M. Styner, S. J. Short, G. R. Lubach, C. Kang, R. Hamer, C. L. Coe, and J. H. Gilmore Maturational Trajectories of Cortical Brain Development through the Pubertal Transition: Unique Species and Sex Differences in the Monkey Revealed through Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Cereb Cortex, August 24, 2009; (2009) bhp166v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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