Sex and Gender Identity Are Linked to Human Brain Activity, Feinstein Institutes Research
12 Julio 2024 - 1:57PM
Business Wire
The findings were recently published in Science
Advances
Discussion about gender identity has become a mainstream topic,
with questions surrounding how the brain is wired and how behavior
is influenced by someone’s sex or gender. New research from The
Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research published today in
Science Advances shows neurobiological underpinnings of sex and
gender in children to better understand how sex (assigned at birth)
and gender (identity and expression) influence the brain, and
ultimately a person’s health.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240712585190/en/
Dr. Elvisha Dhamala, professor in the
Institute of Behavioral Sciences at the Feinstein Institutes for
Medical Research, led the study. (Photo: Business Wire)
Led by Elvisha Dhamala, PhD, assistant professor in the
Institute of Behavioral Sciences at the Feinstein Institutes, and
in collaboration with Dani Bassett, PhD, professor at the
University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Yeo, PhD, associate professor at
the National University of Singapore, and Avram Holmes, PhD,
associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers University, the study
analyzed data from nearly 4,800 children from the Adolescent Brain
Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study – the largest long-term study of
brain development and child health in the United States. The study
finds that sex and gender have unique and overlapping associations
with brain functional connections. Specifically, sex is primarily
linked to connectivity within motor, visual, control and limbic
networks, while gender-related networks are more widely distributed
throughout the brain. These sex and gender differences in brain
connectivity might contribute to differences in brain-related
illnesses.
“Sex and gender have traditionally been conflated in research
when they should have been studied separately,” said Dr. Dhamala.
“This research sheds light on the complex and nuanced ways in which
biological and environmental factors influence brain organization
and shows the need to consider a person’s sex and gender to fully
understand health and disease across the human lifespan.”
Over the last 20 years, scientists have studied how sex and
neurobiology interact with behavior. Many of these studies have had
differing results and have been hard to reproduce, suggesting there
might be misunderstandings or biases in this research area. The
focus on assigned sex, without consideration for gender, in the
past, may have further limited the research.
Using machine learning to predict sex and gender based on brain
connectivity, Dr. Dhamala determined that the two are linked to
different parts of the brain. This underscores that sex and gender
are distinct from one another. Previous research in the biomedical
sciences has primarily focused on sex, but these findings highlight
the importance of accounting for gender as well.
Prior studies have found that people assigned female at birth
are more likely to experience mood and anxiety disorders while
people assigned male at birth are more likely to be diagnosed with
substance use or attention deficit disorders. The present study
shows that while sex is linked to specific brain networks, gender’s
influence spreads more widely across the brain. Many of the brain
networks shown to be related to sex and gender in this study are
implicated in brain disorders. These findings that sex and gender
have unique effects on brain connectivity might explain sex and
gender differences in brain-related illnesses.
“Understanding how sex and gender affect the brain can help
develop better therapies to treat mental health and other
conditions,” said Anil K. Malhotra, MD, co-director of the
Institute of Behavioral Science at the Feinstein Institutes. “Dr.
Dhamala’s findings are a step towards understanding the brain’s
inner connections and impact on one’s overall health.”
About the Feinstein Institutes
The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research is the home of the
research institutes of Northwell Health, the largest health care
provider and private employer in New York State. Encompassing 50
research labs, 3,000 clinical research studies and 5,000
researchers and staff, the Feinstein Institutes raises the standard
of medical innovation through its five institutes of behavioral
science, bioelectronic medicine, cancer, health system science, and
molecular medicine. We make breakthroughs in genetics, oncology,
brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and are the global
scientific leader in bioelectronic medicine – a new field of
science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more
information about how we produce knowledge to cure disease, visit
http://feinstein.northwell.edu and follow us on LinkedIn.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240712585190/en/
Julianne Mosher Allen 516-880-4824
jmosherallen@northwell.edu