Home Department: Psychology
Supported by: Bio-X
Mentor: Ian Gotlib, Psychology

Puberty is a time of dramatic and important changes. Neurologically, puberty is marked by an increase in cortical thickness followed by a period of thinning, likely due to synaptic pruning. More aggressive pruning has been associated both with depressed children and with girls who are characterized by high levels of sex hormones during puberty; however, there has been little research examining the neural basis of suicidal ideation, a critical precursor of suicidal behaviors and attempts. Kira will examine trajectories of cortical thickness over puberty in a sample of girls characterized by high levels of suicidality and their low-suicidal peers.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 24, 2017:

Sex Differences in White Matter Tract Development Across Puberty

Kira Oskirko¹, Tiffany Ho¹, Natalie Colich¹, Ian Gotlib¹
[Department of Psychology¹, Stanford University]