<p>The neurobiological accompaniments of well-established sex differences in human behavior and disease remain unclear — in part due to a lack of large, diverse functional neuroimaging studies. We address this gap using over 700 h of fMRI data across seven tasks from 978 individuals with extensive structural and behavioral measures. We find that sex differences in task-activation are widespread (85% of cortex)&#xa0;and reproducible,&#xa0; largely&#xa0;task-specific, of small to moderate effect size,&#xa0;and unaligned with brain volume differences. While machine learning can classify sex from brain activation, volume, or behavior, these data types provide orthogonal information. Brain-wide association studies reveal that links between brain activation and behavior are highly conserved between sexes. The few subtle sex differences in brain-behavior linkage that do exist are not preferentially localized to sex-biased behaviors. Our findings clarify the nature of sex differences in human brain function and their links with neuroanatomy and behavior, providing a useful foundation for future research.</p>

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Robust but independent sex differences in human brain function, structure, and behavior

  • Siyuan Liu,
  • Bridget W. Mahony,
  • Ethan T. Whitman,
  • Stephen J. Gotts,
  • Dustin Moraczewski,
  • Adam Thomas,
  • Alex Martin,
  • Armin Raznahan

摘要

The neurobiological accompaniments of well-established sex differences in human behavior and disease remain unclear — in part due to a lack of large, diverse functional neuroimaging studies. We address this gap using over 700 h of fMRI data across seven tasks from 978 individuals with extensive structural and behavioral measures. We find that sex differences in task-activation are widespread (85% of cortex) and reproducible,  largely task-specific, of small to moderate effect size, and unaligned with brain volume differences. While machine learning can classify sex from brain activation, volume, or behavior, these data types provide orthogonal information. Brain-wide association studies reveal that links between brain activation and behavior are highly conserved between sexes. The few subtle sex differences in brain-behavior linkage that do exist are not preferentially localized to sex-biased behaviors. Our findings clarify the nature of sex differences in human brain function and their links with neuroanatomy and behavior, providing a useful foundation for future research.