White matter microstructure in transmasculine and cisgender adolescents: A multiparametric and multivariate study

by Lindsey T. Thurston, Malvina N. Skorska, Nancy J. Lobaugh, Kenneth J. Zucker, M. Mallar Chakravarty, Meng-Chuan Lai, Sofia Chavez, Doug P. VanderLaan Adolescence is a sensitive developmental period for neural sex/gender differentiation. The present study used multiparametric mapping to better characterize adolescent white matter (WM) microstructure. WM microstructure was investigated using diffusion tensor indices (fractional anisotropy; mean, radial, and axial diffusivity [AD]) and quantitative T1 relaxometry (T1) in hormone therapy naïve adolescent cisgender girls, cisgender boys, and transgender boys (i.e., assigned female at birth and diagnosed with gender dysphoria). Diffusion indices were first analyzed for group differences using tract-based spatial statistics, which revealed a group difference in AD. Thus, two multiparametric and multivariate analyses assessed AD in conjunction with T1 relaxation time, and with respect to developmental proxy variables (i.e., age, serum estradiol, pubertal development, sexual attraction) tho ught to be relevant to adolescent brain development. The multivariate analyses showed a shared pattern between AD and T1 such that higher AD was associated with longer T1, and AD and T1 strongly related to all five developmental variables in cisgender boys (10 significant correlations,r range: 0.21 –0.73). There were fewer significant correlations between the brain and developmental variables in cisgender girls (three correlations,r range: -...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research