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Greater male than female variability in regional brain structure across the lifespan

Wierenga, L. M., Doucet, G.E., Dima, D. ORCID: 0000-0002-2598-0952 , Agartz, I., Aghajani, M., Akudjedu, T. N., Albajes-Eizagirre, A., Alnaes, D., Alpert, K. I., Andreassen, O. A., Anticevic, A., Asherson, P., Banaschewski, T., Bargallo, N., Baumeister, S., Baur-Streubel, R., Bertolino, A., Bonvino, A., Boomsma, D. I., Borgwardt, S., Bourque, J., den Braber, A., Brandeis, D., Breier, A., Brodaty, H., Brouwer, R. M., Buitelaar, J. K., Busatto, G. F., Calhoun, V. D., Canales-Rodriguez, E. J., Cannon, D. M., Caseras, X., Castellanos, F. X., Chaim-Avancini, T. M., Ching, C. R., Clark, V. P., Conrod, P. J., Conzelmann, A., Crivello, F., Davey, C. G., Dickie, E. W., Ehrlich, S., Van't Ent, D., Fisher, S. E., Fouche, J-P., Franke, B., Fuentes-Claramonte, P., de Geus, E. J. C., Di Giorgio, A., Glahn, D. C., Gotlib, I. H., Grabe, H. J., Gruber, O., Gruner, P., Gur, R. E., Gur, R. C., Gurholt, T. P., De Haan, L., Haatveit, B., Harrison, B. J., Hartman, C. A., Hatton, S. N., Heslenfeld, D. J., van den Heuvel, O. A., Hickie, I. B., Hoekstra, P. J., Hohmann, S., Holmes, A. J., Hoogman, M., Hosten, N., Howells, F. M., Pol, H.E., Huyser, C., Jahanshad, N., James, A. C., Jiang, J., Jönsson, E. G., Joska, J. A., Kalnin, A., Klein, M., Koenders, L., Kolskar, K., Krämer, B., Kuntsi, J., Lagopoulos, J., Lázaro, L., Lebedeva, I., Lee, P.H., Lochner, C., Machielsen, M. W. J., Maingault, S., Martin, N. G., Martínez-Zalacaín, I., Mataix-Cols, D., Mazoyer, B., McDonald, B. C., McDonald, C., McIntosh, A.M., McMahon, K. L., McPhilemy, G., van der Meer, D., Menchón, J. M., Naaijen, J., Nyberg, L., Oosterlaan, J., Paloyelis, Y., Pauli, P., Pergola, G., Pomarol-Clotet, E., Portella, M. J., Radua, J., Reif, A., Richard, G., Roffman, J. L., Rosa, P. G. P., Sacchet, M. D., Sachdev, P. S., Salvador, R., Sarro, S., Satterthwaite, T. D., Saykin, A. J., Serpa, M. H., Sim, K., Simmons, A., Smoller, J. W., Sommer, I., Soriano-Mas, C., Stein, D. J., Strike, L. T., Szeszko, P. R., Temmingh, H. S., Thomopoulos, S. I., Tomyshev, A. S., Trollor, J. N., Uhlmann, A., Veer, I. M., Veltman, D. J., Voineskos, A. N., Völzke, H., Walter, H., Wang, L., Wang, Y., Weber, B., Wen, W., West, J. D., Westlye, L. T., Whalley, H. C., Williams, S. C. R., Wittfeld, K., Wolf, D. H., Wright, M. J., Yoncheva, Y., Zanetti, M. V., Ziegler, G. C., de Zubicaray, G. I., Thompson, P. M., Crone, E. A. M., Frangou, S. & Tamnes, C. K. (2020). Greater male than female variability in regional brain structure across the lifespan. Human Brain Mapping, 43(1), pp. 470-499. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25204

Abstract

For many traits, males show greater variability than females, with possible implications for understanding sex differences in health and disease. Here, the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis) Consortium presents the largest‐ever mega‐analysis of sex differences in variability of brain structure, based on international data spanning nine decades of life. Subcortical volumes, cortical surface area and cortical thickness were assessed in MRI data of 16,683 healthy individuals 1‐90 years old (47% females). We observed significant patterns of greater male than female between‐subject variance for all subcortical volumetric measures, all cortical surface area measures, and 60% of cortical thickness measures. This pattern was stable across the lifespan for 50% of the subcortical structures, 70% of the regional area measures, and nearly all regions for thickness. Our findings that these sex differences are present in childhood implicate early life genetic or gene‐environment interaction mechanisms. The findings highlight the importance of individual differences within the sexes, that may underpin sex‐specific vulnerability to disorders.

Publication Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Departments: School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:
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