Sex Differences in Regional Cerebral Glucose Metabolism During a Resting State

Abstract

Positron emission tomography was used to evaluate the regional distribution of cerebral glucose metabolism in 61 healthy adults at rest. Although the profile of metabolic activity was similar for men and women, some sex differences and hemispheric asymmetries were detectable. Men had relatively higher metabolism than women in temporal-limbic regions and cerebellum and relatively lower metabolism in cingulate regions. In both sexes, metabolism was relatively higher in left association cortices and the cingulate region and in right ventro-temporal limbic regions and their projections. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that differences in cognitive and emotional processing have biological substrates.

Toward discovery science of human brain function

“…The detection of sex differences was particularly noteworthy, because these differences are rarely appreciated in the R-fMRI literature (35) (37,38). For example, males and females differ in terms of hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit (39).…”

Sex differences in medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex hypoperfusion in cocaine-dependent men and women

“…6 In light of the growing literature demonstrating discrete differences in the brains of men and women, neurobiological substrates may underlie the different clinical trajectories of men and women with addictive disorders. 7,8 In nonaddicted subjects, for example, investigators have reported sex differences in brain structure, 9 basal measures of brain functioning, 10,11 and functional measures of neural responding. 12 Several studies have now documented basal neural differences in cocaine-dependent men and women, including a relative absence of cerebral perfusion defects, 13 less frontal cortex neuronal loss, 14 and better white-matter blood flow 15 in women relative to men.…”

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT): A Gene Contributing to Sex Differences in Brain Function, and to Sexual Dimorphism in the Predisposition to Psychiatric Disorders

“…Many parameters of brain function and structure vary between men and women (eg Gur et al, 1995;Murphy et al, 1996;De Courten-Myers, 1999;De Bellis et al, 2001;Goldstein et al, 2001;Preece and Cairns, 2003;De Vries, 2004), and most psychiatric disorders show sex differences in one or more variables including incidence, age at onset, clinical features, and outcome (eg Lensi et al, 1996;Tamminga, 1997;Piccinelli and Wilkinson, 2000;Aleman et al, 2003;Baron-Cohen et al, 2005). These dimorphisms are usually ascribed primarily to the influence of sex hormones (Collaer and Hines, 1995;Rubinow and Schmidt, 1996;Seeman, 1997;Kelly et al, 1999), as well as to the actions of sex chromosome genes (Vawter et al, 2004;Cutter et al, 2006;Davies and Wilkinson, 2006).…”