TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating Sexual Dimorphism of Human White Matter in a Harmonized, Multisite Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
AU - Seitz, Johanna
AU - Cetin-Karayumak, Suheyla
AU - Lyall, Amanda
AU - Pasternak, Ofer
AU - Baxi, Madhura
AU - Vangel, Mark
AU - Pearlson, Godfrey
AU - Tamminga, Carol
AU - Sweeney, John
AU - Clementz, Brett
AU - Schretlen, David
AU - Viher, Petra Verena
AU - Stegmayer, Katharina
AU - Walther, Sebastian
AU - Lee, Jungsun
AU - Crow, Tim
AU - James, Anthony
AU - Voineskos, Aristotle
AU - Buchanan, Robert W.
AU - Szeszko, Philip R.
AU - Malhotra, Anil
AU - Keshavan, Matcheri
AU - Koerte, Inga K.
AU - Shenton, Martha E.
AU - Rathi, Yogesh
AU - Kubicki, Marek
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Axonal myelination and repair, critical processes for brain development, maturation, and aging, remain controlled by sexual hormones. Whether this influence is reflected in structural brain differences between sexes, and whether it can be quantified by neuroimaging, remains controversial. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is an in vivo method that can track myelination changes throughout the lifespan. We utilize a large, multisite sample of harmonized dMRI data (n = 551, age = 9-65 years, 46% females/54% males) to investigate the influence of sex on white matter (WM) structure. We model lifespan trajectories of WM using the most common dMRI measure fractional anisotropy (FA). Next, we examine the influence of both age and sex on FA variability. We estimate the overlap between male and female FA and test whether it is possible to label individual brains as male or female. Our results demonstrate regionally and spatially specific effects of sex. Sex differences are limited to limbic structures and young ages. Additionally, not only do sex differences diminish with age, but tracts within each subject become more similar to one another. Last, we show the high overlap in FA between sexes, which implies that determining sex based on WM remains open.
AB - Axonal myelination and repair, critical processes for brain development, maturation, and aging, remain controlled by sexual hormones. Whether this influence is reflected in structural brain differences between sexes, and whether it can be quantified by neuroimaging, remains controversial. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is an in vivo method that can track myelination changes throughout the lifespan. We utilize a large, multisite sample of harmonized dMRI data (n = 551, age = 9-65 years, 46% females/54% males) to investigate the influence of sex on white matter (WM) structure. We model lifespan trajectories of WM using the most common dMRI measure fractional anisotropy (FA). Next, we examine the influence of both age and sex on FA variability. We estimate the overlap between male and female FA and test whether it is possible to label individual brains as male or female. Our results demonstrate regionally and spatially specific effects of sex. Sex differences are limited to limbic structures and young ages. Additionally, not only do sex differences diminish with age, but tracts within each subject become more similar to one another. Last, we show the high overlap in FA between sexes, which implies that determining sex based on WM remains open.
KW - connectivity
KW - diffusion-weighted MRI
KW - female
KW - fractional anisotropy
KW - male
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U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhaa220
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhaa220
M3 - Article
C2 - 32851404
AN - SCOPUS:85098466132
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 31
SP - 201
EP - 212
JO - Cerebral Cortex
JF - Cerebral Cortex
IS - 1
ER -