@article{ref1,
title="Developmental investigation of fear-potentiated startle across puberty",
journal="Biological psychology",
year="2014",
author="Schmitz, Anja and Grillon, Christian and Avenevoli, Shelli and Cui, Lihong and Merikangas, Kathleen Ries",
volume="97",
number="",
pages="15-21",
abstract="The goal of this study was to examine the association between affective development, puberty, and gender using the startle reflex as a marker of defensive mechanisms. Thirty-one male and thirty-five female adolescents aged ten to thirteen participated in a prospective study with up to five assessments. Longitudinal analyses revealed a significant effect of sex, with girls showing stronger fear-potentiation at all pubertal stages. Post hoc tests revealed that fear-potentiation increased in girls but not boys over the course of puberty. Furthermore, baseline startle decreased over the course of puberty. Because age was included as a covariate in all analyses, the puberty effect cannot be accounted for by age. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence for a significant increase in fear-potentiated startle across the pubertal transition. Attribution of these changes to pubertal status rather than age has important implications for our understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety and affect regulation.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0301-0511",
doi="10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.12.002",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.12.002"
}