Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence
Functional brain organization in transgender persons remains unclear. Our aims were to investigate global and regional connectivity differences within functional networks in transwomen and transmen with early-in-life onset gender incongruence; and to test the consistency of two available hypotheses...
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doaj-56a55672735e40eb8d7098d0ec34cf352020-11-25T03:29:05ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722020-05-01211116613Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruenceCarme Uribe0Carme Junque1Esther Gómez-Gil2Alexandra Abos3Sven C. Mueller4Antonio Guillamon5Medical Psychology Unit, Department of Medicine, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Corresponding author. Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, C/ Casanova, 143, 08036, Barcelona.Medical Psychology Unit, Department of Medicine, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED:CB06/05/0018-ISCIII), Barcelona, Spain; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, SpainGender Unit, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, SpainMedical Psychology Unit, Department of Medicine, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainDepartment of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment and Treatment, University of Deusto, Bilbao, SpainDepartamento de Psicobiologia, Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, Madrid, Spain; Corresponding author. Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, C/Juan del Rosal, 10, 28040, Madrid, Spain.Functional brain organization in transgender persons remains unclear. Our aims were to investigate global and regional connectivity differences within functional networks in transwomen and transmen with early-in-life onset gender incongruence; and to test the consistency of two available hypotheses that attempted to explain gender variants: (i) a neurodevelopmental cortical hypothesis that suggests the existence of different brain phenotypes based on structural MRI data and genes polymorphisms of sex hormone receptors; (ii) a functional-based hypothesis in relation to regions involved in the own body perception. T2*-weighted images in a 3-T MRI were obtained from 29 transmen and 17 transwomen as well as 22 cisgender women and 19 cisgender men. Resting-state independent component analysis, seed-to-seed functional network and graph theory analyses were performed. Transmen, transwomen, and cisgender women had decreased connectivity compared with cisgender men in superior parietal regions, as part of the salience (SN) and the executive control (ECN) networks. Transmen also had weaker connectivity compared with cisgender men between intra-SN regions and weaker inter-network connectivity between regions of the SN, the default mode network (DMN), the ECN and the sensorimotor network. Transwomen had lower small-worldness, modularity and clustering coefficient than cisgender men. There were no differences among transmen, transwomen, and ciswomen. Together these results underline the importance of the SN interacting with DMN, ECN, and sensorimotor networks in transmen, involving regions of the entire brain with a frontal predominance. Reduced global connectivity graph-theoretical measures were a characteristic of transwomen. It is proposed that the interaction between networks is a keystone in building a gendered self. Finally, our findings suggest that both proposed hypotheses are complementary in explaining brain differences between gender variants.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811920301002ConnectivityfMRIGender incongruenceGraph theoryTransmenTranswomen |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Carme Uribe Carme Junque Esther Gómez-Gil Alexandra Abos Sven C. Mueller Antonio Guillamon |
spellingShingle |
Carme Uribe Carme Junque Esther Gómez-Gil Alexandra Abos Sven C. Mueller Antonio Guillamon Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence NeuroImage Connectivity fMRI Gender incongruence Graph theory Transmen Transwomen |
author_facet |
Carme Uribe Carme Junque Esther Gómez-Gil Alexandra Abos Sven C. Mueller Antonio Guillamon |
author_sort |
Carme Uribe |
title |
Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
title_short |
Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
title_full |
Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
title_fullStr |
Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
title_full_unstemmed |
Brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
title_sort |
brain network interactions in transgender individuals with gender incongruence |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
NeuroImage |
issn |
1095-9572 |
publishDate |
2020-05-01 |
description |
Functional brain organization in transgender persons remains unclear. Our aims were to investigate global and regional connectivity differences within functional networks in transwomen and transmen with early-in-life onset gender incongruence; and to test the consistency of two available hypotheses that attempted to explain gender variants: (i) a neurodevelopmental cortical hypothesis that suggests the existence of different brain phenotypes based on structural MRI data and genes polymorphisms of sex hormone receptors; (ii) a functional-based hypothesis in relation to regions involved in the own body perception. T2*-weighted images in a 3-T MRI were obtained from 29 transmen and 17 transwomen as well as 22 cisgender women and 19 cisgender men. Resting-state independent component analysis, seed-to-seed functional network and graph theory analyses were performed. Transmen, transwomen, and cisgender women had decreased connectivity compared with cisgender men in superior parietal regions, as part of the salience (SN) and the executive control (ECN) networks. Transmen also had weaker connectivity compared with cisgender men between intra-SN regions and weaker inter-network connectivity between regions of the SN, the default mode network (DMN), the ECN and the sensorimotor network. Transwomen had lower small-worldness, modularity and clustering coefficient than cisgender men. There were no differences among transmen, transwomen, and ciswomen. Together these results underline the importance of the SN interacting with DMN, ECN, and sensorimotor networks in transmen, involving regions of the entire brain with a frontal predominance. Reduced global connectivity graph-theoretical measures were a characteristic of transwomen. It is proposed that the interaction between networks is a keystone in building a gendered self. Finally, our findings suggest that both proposed hypotheses are complementary in explaining brain differences between gender variants. |
topic |
Connectivity fMRI Gender incongruence Graph theory Transmen Transwomen |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811920301002 |
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