Exploring profiles of hormone exposure: Associations with cognition in a population-based cohort of early adolescents

Abstract

Testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and estradiol are the main hormonal markers of puberty. Previous research has explored links between these hormones and cognition with little consideration of how hormonal patterns may co-occur and together, influence cognitive processes. The current study uses a novel approach to capture this heterogeneity, using latent profile analysis (LPA) to generate empirically-derived hormone profiles in a population-level dataset of adolescents. We analyzed basal salivary testosterone, DHEA, and estradiol data from 10,816 youth (48.1% female, Mage = 9.91, SDage =.63) using LPA in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and examined whether hormone profiles differentially predicted cognition assessed two years later. Eight profiles were identified, primarily representing differences in hormone levels (e.g., Low Hormones, High Hormones), but also discordance (e.g., High Estradiol). There were limited sociodemographic differences, but youth in higher hormone profiles had better inhibitory control, visuospatial processing, and decision-making skills, even after adjusting for age, income, race/ethnicity, and pubertal status. For example, girls in the High Estradiol profile had better visuospatial processing skills compared to all other girls and girls in the High DHEA profile as well as boys in the High Hormone profile made significantly fewer risky decisions than youth in the Low Hormone profiles. Higher hormone levels may predict better cognition over time in early adolescence. Further, this work suggests that pubertal hormone profiles likely reflect distinct physiological phenomena with unique cognitive consequences that may not be observed by studying individual hormone levels or subjective pubertal status.