Sex, gender diversity, and brain structure in children ages 9 to 11 years old.
Sex, gender diversity, and brain structure in children ages 9 to 11 years old.
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9 至 11 岁儿童的性别、性别多样性和大脑结构。
DOI：
10.1101/2023.07.28.551036
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发表时间：
2023
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Herting,MeganM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Torgerson,Carinna;Ahmadi,Hedyeh;Choupan,Jeiran;Fan,ChunChieh;Blosnich,JohnR;Herting,MeganM
关于性别和大脑结构之间的关系，尤其是在儿童时期，目前还没有达成共识。此外，很少有儿科神经影像学研究将性别和社会性别作为感兴趣的变量进行分析——其中许多研究样本量较小，并且依赖于性别的二元定义。当前的研究通过连续的感觉性别评分检查了性别多样性，并根据 9-11 岁儿童大样本 (N=7693) 的 X 和 Y 等位基因频率对性别进行了分类。然后，采用统计模型构建方法来确定性别多样性和性别是否独立或共同与大脑形态相关，包括皮层下体积、皮层厚度、回旋和白质微结构。具有性别而非性别多样性的模型是所检查的 75% 灰质区域和 79% 白质区域的最佳拟合模型。在性别模型中添加性别可以解释双侧小脑体积、左侧中央前皮质厚度以及右侧额上回、右侧海马旁回和左侧顶叶几个区域的回旋情况比单独性别有更大的差异。对于左钩束的平均扩散率，性别、性别及其相互作用的模型捕获了最大的方差。尽管如此，在所有情况下，性别造成的方差幅度都很小，并且对于所检查的任何白质或灰质区域来说，感觉性别评分本身并不是一个重要的预测因子。总体而言，这些发现表明，在 9-11 岁之间，性别在大脑结构差异中只占一小部分，而性别多样性与神经结构多样性没有直接关系。
There remains little consensus about the relationship between sex and brain structure, particularly in childhood. Moreover, few pediatric neuroimaging studies have analyzed both sex and gender as variables of interest - many of which included small sample sizes and relied on binary definitions of gender. The current study examined gender diversity with a continuous felt-gender score and categorized sex based on X and Y allele frequency in a large sample of children ages 9–11 years-old (N=7693). Then, a statistical model-building approach was employed to determine whether gender diversity and sex independently or jointly relate to brain morphology, including subcortical volume, cortical thickness, gyrification, and white matter microstructure. The model with sex, but not gender diversity, was the best-fitting model in 75% of gray matter regions and 79% of white matter regions examined. The addition of gender to the sex model explained significantly more variance than sex alone with regard to bilateral cerebellum volume, left precentral cortical thickness, as well as gyrification in the right superior frontal gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and several regions in the left parietal lobe. For mean diffusivity in the left uncinate fasciculus, the model with sex, gender, and their interaction captured the most variance. Nonetheless, the magnitude of variance accounted for by sex was small in all cases and felt-gender score was not a significant predictor on its own for any white or gray matter regions examined. Overall, these findings demonstrate that at ages 9–11 years-old, sex accounts for a small proportion of variance in brain structure, while gender diversity is not directly associated with neurostructural diversity.