Journal
CEREBRAL CORTEX
Volume 23, Issue 12, Pages 2855-2862Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhs267
Keywords
cortical thickness; magnetic resonance imaging; sex differences; transsexualism
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministerio de Economia [PSI2011-24496]
- Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia [AP2008-0935]
- UNED
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Sex differences in cortical thickness (CTh) have been extensively investigated but as yet there are no reports on CTh in transsexuals. Our aim was to determine whether the CTh pattern in transsexuals before hormonal treatment follows their biological sex or their gender identity. We performed brain magnetic resonance imaging on 94 subjects: 24 untreated female-to-male transsexuals (FtMs), 18 untreated male-to-female transsexuals (MtFs), and 29 male and 23 female controls in a 3-T TIM-TRIO Siemens scanner. T-1-weighted images were analyzed to obtain CTh and volumetric subcortical measurements with FreeSurfer software. CTh maps showed control females have thicker cortex than control males in the frontal and parietal regions. In contrast, males have greater right putamen volume. FtMs had a similar CTh to control females and greater CTh than males in the parietal and temporal cortices. FtMs had larger right putamen than females but did not differ from males. MtFs did not differ in CTh from female controls but had greater CTh than control males in the orbitofrontal, insular, and medial occipital regions. In conclusion, FtMs showed evidence of subcortical gray matter masculinization, while MtFs showed evidence of CTh feminization. In both types of transsexuals, the differences with respect to their biological sex are located in the right hemisphere.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available