ArticleQuantitative imaging in medicine and surgery2020
Interactive effects of gender and sexual orientation on cortical thickness, surface area and gray matter volume: a structural brain MRI study.
Article in Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- White Matter Microstructure Among Straight and Gay Cisgender Men, Sao Praphet Song, and Straight Cisgender Women in Thailand.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Carving the Biodevelopment of Same-Sex Sexual Orientation at Its Joints.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Causal effects of serum testosterone levels on brain volume: a sex-stratified Mendelian randomization study.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2023Article
- Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Higher inter-hemispheric homotopic connectivity in lifelong premature ejaculation patients: a pilot resting-state fMRI study.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2021Article
- Divergent effects of irradiation on brain cortical morphology in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: one-year follow-up study using structural magnetic resonance imaging.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2021Article
- Glutamate in Male and Female Sexual Behavior: Receptors, Transporters, and Steroid Independence.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTestosterone is thought to play a crucial role in sexual differentiation of the brain, and sexual orientation is programmed into our brain structures even when we are still fetuses. Although gender and sexual orientation differences have been shown respectively in many brain structures, the mechanism underlying the sexual differentiation of the brain is still unknown. The study is to investigate the interactive effects of gender and sexual orientation on cerebral structures in homosexual and heterosexual people.
methodsSexual orientation was evaluated by the Kinsey scale. We collected structural magnetic resonance image (MRI) data of local cortical thickness, surface area, and gray matter volume in all the subjects (29 homosexual and 29 heterosexual men, 17 homosexual and 17 heterosexual women). Statistical maps were generated using a general linear model (GLM) using FreeSurfer's Query, Design, Estimate, Contrast (QDEC) interface. We had sexual orientation and gender as 2 discrete factors with 2 levels, allowing for the generation of the interaction between sexual orientation and gender: homosexual women and heterosexual men versus heterosexual women and homosexual men. Coordinates were in Talairach space. All the cluster sizes were calculated with a P value of 0.01.
resultsResults revealed interactions concerning the area and gray matter volume between the factors of sexual orientation and gender. Regarding the thickness, an interaction was not found in any regions of the clusters. Regarding the area, an interaction was found in region of left middle temporal lobe, inferior temporal lobe, lateral occipital lobe, fusiform [(-58.1, -38.6, -14.7), maximum vertex-wise (MV) log
conclusionsThe present study extends our understandings of how structural features differ in homosexual men, heterosexual men, homosexual women, and heterosexual women. Furthermore, it highlights the interactions between sexual orientation and gender in the left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral temporal lobe, and the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex, which are suggested to play a critical role in the sexual differentiation of the human brain.
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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.