Adolescence is accompanied by significant changes in brain structure and function, and is a period when sex-biases in multiple psychiatric diseases and substance use disorders emerge. While puberty marks the onset of the adolescence, it remains unclear which adolescence-associated brain and behavioral changes occur dependent vs. independent of puberty in males and females. Here, animal models provide an exciting opportunity to examine the influence of age, sex, and pubertal status on behavior and underlying neural structure and function with great specificity. In this talk, I’ll discuss our recent findings highlighting sex differences in the interplay between pubertal development, brain maturation, and behavior in mice with a focus on cognitive and affective behaviors and frontostriatal circuits. Finally, I will discuss future plans to apply similar approaches to explore circuit mechanisms that underlie post-pubertal sex biases in psychiatric vulnerability and resilience with the goal of developing interventions to promote the healthy transition from childhood to adulthood. 
 

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