Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation

Abstract Both transgenderism and homosexuality are facets of human biology, believed to derive from different sexual differentiation of the brain. The two phenomena are, however, fundamentally unalike, despite an increased prevalence of homosexuality among transgender populations. Transgenderism is...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Sarah M. Burke, Amir H. Manzouri, Ivanka Savic
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2967d443d5844f89bdf422603aafc295
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:2967d443d5844f89bdf422603aafc295
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2967d443d5844f89bdf422603aafc2952021-12-02T15:06:25ZStructural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation10.1038/s41598-017-17352-82045-2322https://doaj.org/article/2967d443d5844f89bdf422603aafc2952017-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17352-8https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Both transgenderism and homosexuality are facets of human biology, believed to derive from different sexual differentiation of the brain. The two phenomena are, however, fundamentally unalike, despite an increased prevalence of homosexuality among transgender populations. Transgenderism is associated with strong feelings of incongruence between one’s physical sex and experienced gender, not reported in homosexual persons. The present study searches to find neural correlates for the respective conditions, using fractional anisotropy (FA) as a measure of white matter connections that has consistently shown sex differences. We compared FA in 40 transgender men (female birth-assigned sex) and 27 transgender women (male birth-assigned sex), with both homosexual (29 male, 30 female) and heterosexual (40 male, 40 female) cisgender controls. Previously reported sex differences in FA were reproduced in cis-heterosexual groups, but were not found among the cis-homosexual groups. After controlling for sexual orientation, the transgender groups showed sex-typical FA-values. The only exception was the right inferior fronto-occipital tract, connecting parietal and frontal brain areas that mediate own body perception. Our findings suggest that the neuroanatomical signature of transgenderism is related to brain areas processing the perception of self and body ownership, whereas homosexuality seems to be associated with less cerebral sexual differentiation.Sarah M. BurkeAmir H. ManzouriIvanka SavicNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Sarah M. Burke Amir H. Manzouri Ivanka Savic Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
description	Abstract Both transgenderism and homosexuality are facets of human biology, believed to derive from different sexual differentiation of the brain. The two phenomena are, however, fundamentally unalike, despite an increased prevalence of homosexuality among transgender populations. Transgenderism is associated with strong feelings of incongruence between one’s physical sex and experienced gender, not reported in homosexual persons. The present study searches to find neural correlates for the respective conditions, using fractional anisotropy (FA) as a measure of white matter connections that has consistently shown sex differences. We compared FA in 40 transgender men (female birth-assigned sex) and 27 transgender women (male birth-assigned sex), with both homosexual (29 male, 30 female) and heterosexual (40 male, 40 female) cisgender controls. Previously reported sex differences in FA were reproduced in cis-heterosexual groups, but were not found among the cis-homosexual groups. After controlling for sexual orientation, the transgender groups showed sex-typical FA-values. The only exception was the right inferior fronto-occipital tract, connecting parietal and frontal brain areas that mediate own body perception. Our findings suggest that the neuroanatomical signature of transgenderism is related to brain areas processing the perception of self and body ownership, whereas homosexuality seems to be associated with less cerebral sexual differentiation.
format	article
author	Sarah M. Burke Amir H. Manzouri Ivanka Savic
author_facet	Sarah M. Burke Amir H. Manzouri Ivanka Savic
author_sort	Sarah M. Burke
title	Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
title_short	Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
title_full	Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
title_fullStr	Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
title_full_unstemmed	Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
title_sort	structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/2967d443d5844f89bdf422603aafc295
work_keys_str_mv	AT sarahmburke structuralconnectionsinthebraininrelationtogenderidentityandsexualorientation AT amirhmanzouri structuralconnectionsinthebraininrelationtogenderidentityandsexualorientation AT ivankasavic structuralconnectionsinthebraininrelationtogenderidentityandsexualorientation
_version_	1718388438426714112

Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation

Ejemplares similares