ArticleScientific reports2017
Structural connections in the brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 108 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of the neural correlates of sexual minority stress: towards an intersectional minority mosaic framework with implications for a future research agenda.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2022Pooled it
- Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Brain Differences as a Function of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation: A Systematic Review of the Human Neuroimaging Literature.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Comparisons of thalamocortical functional connectivity in transgender women and cisgender individuals: associations with cognition in a Chinese cohort.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Improved diffusion tensor parametric maps in the brain from reduced-direction acquisitions using a deep learning approach.Magma (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Sex versus Gender Role Endorsement Associations With White Matter Microstructure in South African Adults: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging insights into transgender and gender nonconfirming youth: a scoping review.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Review
- White Matter Microstructure Among Straight and Gay Cisgender Men, Sao Praphet Song, and Straight Cisgender Women in Thailand.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Gender Incongruence and Autistic Traits: Cerebral and Behavioral Underpinnings.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Pain mechanisms in the transgender individual: a review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- White matter microstructure in transmasculine and cisgender adolescents: A multiparametric and multivariate study.PloS one · 2024Article
- A brief historic overview of sexual and gender diversity in neuroscience: past, present, and future.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- The Biodevelopment of Sexual Orientation: Beyond the Known Horizon.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Carving the Biodevelopment of Same-Sex Sexual Orientation at Its Joints.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Cortical Structure Differences in Relation to Age, Sexual Attractions, and Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents: An Examination of Mean Diffusivity and T1 Relaxation Time.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Alterations in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus - a specific neural correlate of gender incongruence?Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Transwoman Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Sex Differences in Acute Neuroendocrine Responses to Stressors in Rodents and Humans.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2022Article
- Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Inter-Network Brain Functional Connectivity in Adolescents Assigned Female at Birth Who Experience Gender Dysphoria.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Cortical Gyrification in Transgender Individuals.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.