Chapter 1 provides the context and conceptual framework for the authors’ approach to thinking about the science of puberty and adolescence. The overarching principle is that the transition from childhood to adulthood that occurs during puberty and adolescence involves complex and iterative interactions between the developing brain, hormones, and experience. This chapter first introduces the concepts of puberty and adolescence and discusses how they are separate, yet intricately linked, developmental processes. Examples of how puberty, defined as reproductive maturation, can be dissociated from adolescence, defined as maturation of the cognitive, emotional, and social behaviors associated with adulthood, are discussed. Other examples highlight the recurring interactions between the brain, pubertal hormones, and experience that ultimately result in an adult individual. The chapter then traces the evolution and growth of research on puberty and adolescence during the last half of the 20th century, which started with puberty being studied mainly by endocrinologists and adolescence being studied mainly by psychologists, and progressed to both puberty and adolescence becoming a focus for basic research conducted by psychobiologists and developmental neurobiologists. The advent of magnetic resonance imaging made possible imaging of the human brain in healthy adolescents; this methodological advance led to new knowledge of the scope and timing of adolescent brain development and how it is shaped by pubertal hormones.
Involvement of glucose transporter 4 in ovarian development and reproductive maturation of
Harmonia axyridis
(Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)
