{"doi":"10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101595","title":"Puberty, sex, and fear extinction retention: A neuroimaging study in youth","abstract":"Anxiety disorders affect 31.1% of U.S. adults, with females exhibiting twice the prevalence of males. While sex differences are well-documented, underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Advanced pubertal status is linked to increased anxiety symptoms in females but not males, suggesting puberty contributes to sex differences in fear-based disorders. Deficits in fear extinction and retention are implicated in anxiety, and prior research suggests sex hormones influence extinction retention. This study examined sex assigned at birth (parent-reported) and pubertal status (self-reported) on extinction retention in 101 youth (47.5% female) using a Pavlovian fear extinction paradigm. Measures included self-reported anxiety symptoms, extinction retention, and neural activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Mid/Late pubertal females exhibited higher anxiety symptoms and poorer extinction retention than males. Stronger extinction retention was linked to lower anxiety in Mid/Late puberty. Neuroimaging revealed lower right amygdala activation in Mid/Late pubertal females during extinction retention and higher ACC activation in Pre/Early puberty across sexes. These findings suggest puberty as a critical window for anxiety vulnerability and sex differences in fear extinction, underscoring the need for further research to inform targeted interventions.","journal":"Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience","year":2025,"id":569835,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9539,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":788926,"name":"Clara G. Zundel","orcid":"0000-0002-1736-2695","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1083775,"name":"MacKenna Shampine","orcid":"0009-0004-0116-1962","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":651825,"name":"Samantha Ely","orcid":"0009-0000-1139-113X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1084214,"name":"Carmen Carpenter","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1475327,"name":"Jennifer Losiowski","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1475328,"name":"Shravya Chanamolu","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1411444,"name":"Jovan Jande","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1406582,"name":"Reem Tamimi","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1474943,"name":"K. S. Sharma","orcid":"0000-0001-7470-325X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1242079,"name":"Emilie O’Mara","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":700389,"name":"Alaina M. Jaster","orcid":"0000-0002-3237-394X","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":539328,"name":"Hilary A. Marusak","orcid":"0000-0002-0771-6795","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1475326,"name":"Sneha Bhargava","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:03.510013Z","pmid":"40638987","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}