PhD Scientific Days 2026

Mental Health Sciences 1.

The Role of Maturational Timing in Shaping Hierarchical Brain Organization in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Name of the presenter

Szakács, Hanna

Institute/workplace of the presenter

HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group

Authors

Szakács Hanna^1,2
1: HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group
2: Division of Mental Health Sciences, Doctoral College of Semmelweis University in Medicine and Health Sciences

Text of the abstract

Introduction: Puberty onset, a hallmark developmental event, is characterized by large interindividual variability. Despite evidence of pubertal hormones shaping cognition, mental health, and behavior, the timing of pubertal maturation remains an understudied dimension of neurodevelopment.
Aims: I examine how the variability of pubertal maturity shapes hierarchical organization of the cerebral cortex in adolescence and emerging adulthood, and its sensitivity to sustained environmental disruption.
Methods: Hierarchical brain organization is quantified via entropy production, reflecting the irreversibility of brain signals in resting state electroencephalography. Pubertal maturity is assessed using ultrasonic bone age, sorting participants into accelerated, average, and decelerated maturity groups. I first examine whether pubertal timing affects hierarchical organization at the group-level. Then, I map trajectories of hierarchical brain organization across maturity groups in adolescence and early adulthood, assessing long-term outcomes, maturity-related momentum (rate of change), and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results: Group comparisons reveal reduced entropy production in both accelerated and decelerated groups in adolescence, indicating that hierarchical organization is best supported by average maturational timing (Szakács et al., 2024). However, trajectory-based analyses reveal maturity group-specific developmental paths. The accelerated group shows low maturity-related momentum and persistently low hierarchical organization but no pandemic-related effect. The decelerated group exhibits rapid development and only a transient reduction in hierarchical organization, but also the strongest pandemic-linked disruption (Szakács et al., 2026).
Conclusion: Pubertal maturity robustly influences the development of hierarchical brain organization, defining fundamentally distinct developmental pathways and specific vulnerability patterns across maturity groups. These findings establish pubertal timing and its variability as key dimensions of human cortical development.
Funding: National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (Grant K-134370 to I.K.); Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN-ELTE-PPKE Adolescent Development Research Group); PPKE-BTK-KUT-23-1 project (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University).