Functional Brain Networks Are Associated with Both Sex and Gender in Children

Overview

Journal Sci Adv

Specialties Biology
Science

Date 2024 Jul 12

PMID 38996031

Authors

Elvisha Dhamala

Dani S Bassett

B T Yeo

Avram J Holmes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Sex and gender are associated with human behavior throughout the life span and across health and disease, but whether they are associated with similar or distinct neural phenotypes is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that, in children, sex and gender are uniquely reflected in the intrinsic functional connectivity of the brain. Somatomotor, visual, control, and limbic networks are preferentially associated with sex, while network correlates of gender are more distributed throughout the cortex. These results suggest that sex and gender are irreducible to one another not only in society but also in biology.

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