Sex steroids and brain structure in pubertal boys and girls

Peper, Jiska S.; Brouwer, Rachel M.; Schnack, Hugo G.; Baal, G. Caroline M. van; Leeuwen, Marieke van; Berg, Stéphanie Martine van den; Waal, Henriette Delemarre-van de; Boomsma, Dorret I.; Kahn, René S.; Pol, Hilleke E. Hulshoff

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.09.012

Cited by 255 publications

(235 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…To date, attempts to relate testosterone signaling to brain anatomy in humans have relied on interindividual differences in serum testosterone levels (that are hard to acquire with high reliability; ref. 19), and used crosssectional study designs that have factored out the effects of age (20,22) and/or sex (21). Therefore, our focus on genetically determined variation in androgen receptor functioning within a longitudinal study of adolescent cortical thickness change provides some of the strongest evidence to date that androgen signaling has the capacity to influence neurodevelopmental processes in humans.…”

Section: Genetic Variation Conferring Enhanced Androgen Receptor Effimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This lack of knowledge is partly a result of the absence of any spatially detailed longitudinal characterization of what constitutes "masculinization" of cortical maturation in humans, but also reflects the challenges of accurately (19) and repeatedly measuring serum androgens in large longitudinal cohorts-especially during adolescence, when surging androgen levels make the question of androgen receptor-mediated influences on brain development highly relevant. The few studies that have attempted to relate circulating androgens to brain anatomy in humans are cross-sectional in design, and have generated mixed results (20)(21)(22), although the largest of these studies report that possession of a genetic variant conferring more efficient androgen receptor functioning strengthens the relationship between peripheral measures of testosterone and brain anatomy (23,24).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Longitudinally mapping the influence of sex and androgen signaling on the dynamics of human cortical maturation in adolescence

Raznahan

Lee

Stidd

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

248

197

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Humans have systematic sex differences in brain-related behavior, cognition, and pattern of mental illness risk. Many of these differences emerge during adolescence, a developmental period of intense neurostructural and endocrine change. Here, by creating "movies" of sexually dimorphic brain development using longitudinal in vivo structural neuroimaging, we show regionally specific sex differences in development of the cerebral cortex during adolescence. Within cortical subsystems known to underpin domains of cognitive behavioral sex difference, structural change is faster in the sex that tends to perform less well within the domain in question. By stratifying participants through molecular analysis of the androgen receptor gene, we show that possession of an allele conferring more efficient functioning of this sex steroid receptor is associated with "masculinization" of adolescent cortical maturation. Our findings extend models first established in rodents, and suggest that in humans too, sex and sex steroids shape brain development in a spatiotemporally specific manner, within neural systems known to underpin sexually dimorphic behaviors.

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Section: Genetic Variation Conferring Enhanced Androgen Receptor Effimentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinally mapping the influence of sex and androgen signaling on the dynamics of human cortical maturation in adolescence

Raznahan

Lee

Stidd

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

248

197

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Because this study addresses complex sexual behaviors in society, rGMD may be associated to a greater extent with sexual attitude. Second, a previous study reported that sexual hormones are associated with gray matter density [Peper et al, 2009]. Conversely, sexual hormones are also associated with some sexual attitudes [Halpern et al, 1994], and rGMD may be associated to a greater extent with sexual attitude in this sense as well.…”

Section: Preprocessing Of T1-weighted Structural Datamentioning

confidence: 87%

The structure of the amygdala associates with human sexual permissiveness: Evidence from voxel‐based morphometry

Takeuchi

Taki

Nouchi

et al. 2014

Human Brain Mapping

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Sexual behavior is a critical function of human procreation. Despite previous studies that investigated the neural mechanisms of basic human physiological sexual functions, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in human sexual permissiveness remain unknown. We used voxelbased morphometry and a questionnaire (scale for sexual attitudes) to measure sexual permissiveness to investigate the gray matter and white matter structural correlates of sexual permissiveness. Sexual permissiveness was negatively correlated with regional gray matter density of the structures involving the right amygdala and surrounding areas, and positively correlated with regional white matter density of the white matter area that spread around the left amygdala to the hypothalamus area. There were no gender-specific relationships in the neural correlates of our findings. These findings suggest that structural variations in

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“…The absence of effect during adulthood could also suggest that both organizational (prenatal) and activational (resulting from circulating post-pubertal levels of hormones) effects of sex steroids are important for brain volume. Thus, it may be argued that before puberty, prenatal testosterone influences brain volume (which may have behavioral effects), but when hormones are activated at puberty, they may override the prenatal effect on brain volume (12,39).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, our group demonstrated that in healthy children, sex differences in brain volumes could not be explained by either pubertal testosterone or estradiol levels (12) and it was argued that prenatal exposure to sex steroids would have more pronounced effects on (the development of) sex differences in overall human brain size than the exposure to pubertal increases of steroid production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does having a twin brother make for a bigger brain?

Peper

Brouwer

Baal

et al. 2009

European Journal of Endocrinology

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Objective: Brain volume of boys is larger than that of girls by w10%. Prenatal exposure to testosterone has been suggested in the masculinization of the brain. For example, in litter-bearing mammals intrauterine position increases prenatal testosterone exposure through adjacent male fetuses, resulting in masculinization of brain morphology. Design: The influence of intrauterine presence of a male co-twin on masculinization of human brain volume was studied in 9-year old twins. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging brain scans, current testosterone, and estradiol levels were acquired from four groups of dizygotic (DZ) twins: boys from same-sex twin-pairs (SSM), boys from opposite-sex twin-pairs (OSM), girls from opposite-sex twin-pairs (OSF), and girls from same-sex twinpairs (SSF; nZ119 individuals). Data on total brain, cerebellum, gray and white matter volumes were examined. Results: Irrespective of their own sex, children with a male co-twin as compared to children with a female co-twin had larger total brain (C2.5%) and cerebellum (C5.5%) volumes. SSM, purportedly exposed to the highest prenatal testosterone levels, were found to have the largest volumes, followed by OSM, OSF and SSF children. Birth weight partly explained the effect on brain volumes. Current testosterone and estradiol levels did not account for the volumetric brain differences. However, the effects observed in children did not replicate in adult twins. Conclusions: Our study indicates that sharing the uterus with a DZ twin brother increases total brain volume in 9-year olds. The effect may be transient and limited to a critical period in childhood.

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Sex steroids and brain structure in pubertal boys and girls

Cited by 255 publications

References 47 publications

Longitudinally mapping the influence of sex and androgen signaling on the dynamics of human cortical maturation in adolescence

Longitudinally mapping the influence of sex and androgen signaling on the dynamics of human cortical maturation in adolescence

The structure of the amygdala associates with human sexual permissiveness: Evidence from voxel‐based morphometry

Does having a twin brother make for a bigger brain?

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