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Summary PSY3370 case 2 sensitive periods
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case/task 2 of the course hormones, the brain and behaviour which is part of the bachelor psychology and advanced minor in psychology. Got an 8.5 for the exam myself.
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Case 2 sensitive periods1. What are sensitive periods?
Article berenbaum
- A key question concerns the extent to which sexual differentiation of human behavior
is influenced by sex hormones present during sensitive periods of development
(organizational effects), as occurs in other mammalian species. The most important
sensitive period has been considered to be prenatal, but there is increasing attention to
puberty as another organizational period, with the possibility of decreasing sensitivity
to sex hormones across the pubertal transition. In this paper, we review evidence that
sex hormones present during the prenatal and pubertal periods produce permanent
changes to behavior. There is good evidence that exposure to high levels of androgens
during prenatal development results in masculinization of activity and occupational
interests, sexual orientation, and some spatial abilities; prenatal androgens have a
smaller effect on gender identity, and there is insufficient information about androgen
effects on sex-linked behavior problems. There is little good evidence regarding long-
lasting behavioral effects of pubertal hormones, but there is some suggestion that they
influence gender identity and perhaps some sex-linked forms of psychopathology, and
there are many opportunities to study this issue.
- Organizational effects have generally been considered to occur early in life when the
brain is undergoing rapid change, but there has always been consideration of potential
other sensitive periods of brain development when sex
hormones again act to induce permanent changes
- the brain remains sensitive to the effects of sex hormones
into adolescence, undergoing structural changes as a result
of hormone exposure. they proposed a continuum of
sensitivity, with sensitivity at its peak during early
development, declining throughout the juvenile and
adolescent periods, and ending sometime in late
adolescence or early adulthood
- the later period of brain organization builds on and refines neural circuits that were
initially established by sex hormones during early development. So, sexual
differentiation begins early in development and is reinforced and finished later in
development. This suggests that human sex-typed behavior depends on appropriate
hormone exposure at multiple points in development. Second, most evidence concerns
effects of androgens on male-typical behavior, especially sexual behavior, but there is
some evidence for an active feminizing effect of ovarian hormones on female-typical
behavior especially during puberty. The latter has particularly intriguing implications
for human behavior: Effects of prenatal hormones have been found to relate
exclusively to the masculinizing (and defeminizing) effects of high levels of
androgens; it now seems possible (indeed likely) that feminization is an active process
facilitated by ovarian hormones in adolescence. Third, a continuum of sensitivity
means that variations in pubertal timing – and corresponding variations in availability
of sex hormones at different points of sensitivity – have consequences for brain
organization and subsequent behavior. Fourth, social experiences may partially
compensate for hormone deficiencies at puberty. This complicates attempts to
understand how behavioral changes at puberty reflect brain changes directly created
by hormones versus social experiences.
Psychological sex differences
1
, - this includes gender identity, sexual orientation, sex-typed activity interests, sex-typed
cognitive abilities, and sex-related behavior problems and forms of psychopathology.
- an important consideration in looking for organizational effects at different
developmental periods concerns developmental changes in sex differences.
- The specific nature of changing sex differences depends on two related questions
about hormones: (a) whether estrogens have a role in feminizing behavior at puberty;
(b) whether the relevant pubertal hormones are sex-differential (androgens for boys,
estrogens for girls) or whether androgens are responsible for sexual differentiation in
puberty as they are in the prenatal period (with boys having high levels and girls
having low levels).
Psychological changes in adolescence
- First, there are changes that are normative. Most individuals experience those changes,
but to varying degrees. For some youth, those changes become pathological, perhaps
because of genetic vulnerability or environmental disadvantage.
- Second, there are changes that vary as a function of the timing of the individual’s
hormone exposure. Some individuals experience those changes, but many do not. This
type of change represents puberty as a period of declining hormone sensitivity
- Early puberty more sensitive to hormones than late puberty
Normative changes in adolescence
- sex differences in a variety of domains that appeared or increased during the second
decade of life, including internalizing symptoms (greater anxiety and self-esteem
problems in girls than in boys), achievement (favoring boys), and social relationships
and social behavior (with girls more than boys oriented to relationship intimacy and
boys more than girls inclined to exhibit physical aggression)
- Perhaps the most salient change is the increased risk-taking that occurs in early
adolescence;
- face processing, when the processing characteristic of childhood is replaced by adult-
like face processing. Children process faces in a piecemeal fashion, whereas adults
process faces in a holistic fashion. For example, upright and upside-down faces are
remembered in similar ways by children, but adults show superiority for upright over
upside-down faces. It is likely that these changes in face processing in adolescence are
influenced by sex hormones and have implications for the other psychological changes
that take place at that time. The likelihood of hormone effects is increased in light of
sex differences in face processing: Females are better than males in face detection; the
sex difference is reduced for detection of upside-down faces and is not present for
objects
sex differences in activity interests
- In childhood, boys and girls prefer and engage with different toys and participate in
different activities. In adolescence, boys and girls continue to prefer and participate in
different leisure and household activities, and academic pursuits. In adulthood, men
and women continue to prefer and participate in different activities, and are
differentially represented in different occupations. Interest and participation in
gendered activities are often considered to result from socialization. But, there is also
good evidence that gendered interests and activities are influenced by hormones, at
least during prenatal development.
Prenatal hormone effects on sex-typed activity interests
- girls and women with CAH are sex-atypical in their activity interests, showing more
male-typed and less female-typed interests than do girls and women without CAH. it
is important to ensure that their male-typed interests specifically reflect prenatal
exposure to high levels of androgens and not social responses to masculinized
2
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