TY - JOUR
T1 - White matter sexual dimorphism of the adult human brain
AU - KH H Bourisly, Ali
AU - Gejo, Grace
AU - Hayat, Abrar A.
AU - Alsarraf, Lamya
AU - Dashti, Fatima M.
AU - Di Paola, Margherita
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Sex-biased psychophysiology, behavior, brain function, and conditions are extensive, yet underlying structural brain mechanisms remain unclear. There is contradicting evidence regarding sexual dimorphism when it comes to brain structure, and there is still no consensus on whether or not there exists such a dimorphism for brain white matter. Therefore, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis along with global volume analysis for white matter across sex. We analyzed 384 T1-weighted MRI brain images (192 male, 192 female) to investigate any differences in white matter (WM) between males and females. In the VBM analysis, we found males to have larger WM, compared to females, in occipital, temporal, insular, parietal, and frontal brain regions. In contrast, females showed only one WM region to be significantly larger than males: the right postcentral gyrus in the parietal lobe region. Although, on average, males showed larger global WM volume, we did not find any significant difference in global WM volume between males and females.
AB - Sex-biased psychophysiology, behavior, brain function, and conditions are extensive, yet underlying structural brain mechanisms remain unclear. There is contradicting evidence regarding sexual dimorphism when it comes to brain structure, and there is still no consensus on whether or not there exists such a dimorphism for brain white matter. Therefore, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis along with global volume analysis for white matter across sex. We analyzed 384 T1-weighted MRI brain images (192 male, 192 female) to investigate any differences in white matter (WM) between males and females. In the VBM analysis, we found males to have larger WM, compared to females, in occipital, temporal, insular, parietal, and frontal brain regions. In contrast, females showed only one WM region to be significantly larger than males: the right postcentral gyrus in the parietal lobe region. Although, on average, males showed larger global WM volume, we did not find any significant difference in global WM volume between males and females.
KW - brain
KW - gender
KW - morphometry
KW - neuroscience
KW - sex
KW - VBM
KW - white matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028044560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/tnsci-2017-0009
DO - 10.1515/tnsci-2017-0009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028044560
VL - 8
SP - 49
EP - 53
JO - Translational Neuroscience
JF - Translational Neuroscience
SN - 2081-3856
IS - 1
ER -