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A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents

Gender dysphoria (GD) is characterized by distress due to an incongruence between experienced gender and sex assigned at birth. Sex-differentiated brain regions are hypothesized to reflect the experienced gender in GD and may play a role in sexual orientation development. Magnetic resonance brain im...

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Autores principales: Skorska, Malvina N., Chavez, Sofia, Devenyi, Gabriel A., Patel, Raihaan, Thurston, Lindsey T., Lai, Meng-Chuan, Zucker, Kenneth J., Chakravarty, M. Mallar, Lobaugh, Nancy J., VanderLaan, Doug P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7831120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10020345
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author Skorska, Malvina N.
Chavez, Sofia
Devenyi, Gabriel A.
Patel, Raihaan
Thurston, Lindsey T.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
Zucker, Kenneth J.
Chakravarty, M. Mallar
Lobaugh, Nancy J.
VanderLaan, Doug P.
author_facet Skorska, Malvina N.
Chavez, Sofia
Devenyi, Gabriel A.
Patel, Raihaan
Thurston, Lindsey T.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
Zucker, Kenneth J.
Chakravarty, M. Mallar
Lobaugh, Nancy J.
VanderLaan, Doug P.
author_sort Skorska, Malvina N.
collection PubMed
description Gender dysphoria (GD) is characterized by distress due to an incongruence between experienced gender and sex assigned at birth. Sex-differentiated brain regions are hypothesized to reflect the experienced gender in GD and may play a role in sexual orientation development. Magnetic resonance brain images were acquired from 16 GD adolescents assigned female at birth (AFAB) not receiving hormone therapy, 17 cisgender girls, and 14 cisgender boys (ages 12–17 years) to examine three morphological and microstructural gray matter features in 76 brain regions: surface area (SA), cortical thickness (CT), and T1 relaxation time. Sexual orientation was represented by degree of androphilia-gynephilia and sexual attraction strength. Multivariate analyses found that cisgender boys had larger SA than cisgender girls and GD AFAB. Shorter T1, reflecting denser, macromolecule-rich tissue, correlated with older age and stronger gynephilia in cisgender boys and GD AFAB, and with stronger attractions in cisgender boys. Thus, cortical morphometry (mainly SA) was related to sex assigned at birth, but not experienced gender. Effects of experienced gender were found as similarities in correlation patterns in GD AFAB and cisgender boys in age and sexual orientation (mainly T1), indicating the need to consider developmental trajectories and sexual orientation in brain studies of GD.
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spelling pubmed-78311202021-01-26 A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents Skorska, Malvina N. Chavez, Sofia Devenyi, Gabriel A. Patel, Raihaan Thurston, Lindsey T. Lai, Meng-Chuan Zucker, Kenneth J. Chakravarty, M. Mallar Lobaugh, Nancy J. VanderLaan, Doug P. J Clin Med Article Gender dysphoria (GD) is characterized by distress due to an incongruence between experienced gender and sex assigned at birth. Sex-differentiated brain regions are hypothesized to reflect the experienced gender in GD and may play a role in sexual orientation development. Magnetic resonance brain images were acquired from 16 GD adolescents assigned female at birth (AFAB) not receiving hormone therapy, 17 cisgender girls, and 14 cisgender boys (ages 12–17 years) to examine three morphological and microstructural gray matter features in 76 brain regions: surface area (SA), cortical thickness (CT), and T1 relaxation time. Sexual orientation was represented by degree of androphilia-gynephilia and sexual attraction strength. Multivariate analyses found that cisgender boys had larger SA than cisgender girls and GD AFAB. Shorter T1, reflecting denser, macromolecule-rich tissue, correlated with older age and stronger gynephilia in cisgender boys and GD AFAB, and with stronger attractions in cisgender boys. Thus, cortical morphometry (mainly SA) was related to sex assigned at birth, but not experienced gender. Effects of experienced gender were found as similarities in correlation patterns in GD AFAB and cisgender boys in age and sexual orientation (mainly T1), indicating the need to consider developmental trajectories and sexual orientation in brain studies of GD. MDPI 2021-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7831120/ /pubmed/33477567 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10020345 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Skorska, Malvina N.
Chavez, Sofia
Devenyi, Gabriel A.
Patel, Raihaan
Thurston, Lindsey T.
Lai, Meng-Chuan
Zucker, Kenneth J.
Chakravarty, M. Mallar
Lobaugh, Nancy J.
VanderLaan, Doug P.
A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title_full A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title_fullStr A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title_full_unstemmed A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title_short A Multi-Modal MRI Analysis of Cortical Structure in Relation to Gender Dysphoria, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Adolescents
title_sort multi-modal mri analysis of cortical structure in relation to gender dysphoria, sexual orientation, and age in adolescents
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7831120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33477567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10020345
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