%0 Electronic Article
%A Serio, Bianca
%A Hettwer, Meike D.
%A Wiersch, Lisa
%A Bignardi, Giacomo
%A Sacher, Julia
%A Weis, Susanne
%A Eickhoff, Simon B.
%A Valk, Sofie L.
%T Sex differences in intrinsic functional cortical organization reflect differences in network topology rather than cortical morphometry
%M FZJ-2024-01249
%D 2023
%Z We want to thank the Human Connectome Project, Washington University, the University of Minnesota, and Oxford University Consortium (Principal Investigators: David Van Essen and Kamil Ugurbil; 1U54MH091657) originally funded by the 16 N.I.H. Institutes and Centers that support the N.I.H. Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; and by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University. BS, MDH, and GB were funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Max Planck Society. JS was funded by the Max Planck Society and University of Leipzig. LW, SW, and SBE was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreements 945539 [HBP SGA3], 826421 [VBC], and 101058516), the DFG (SFB 1451 and IRTG 2150), and the National Institute of Health (NIH; R01 MH074457). SLV was supported by the Max Planck Society through the Otto Hahn Award.
%X Brain size robustly differs between sexes. However, the consequences of this anatomical dimorphism on sex differences in intrinsic brain function remain unclear. We investigated the extent to which sex differences in intrinsic cortical functional organization may be explained by differences in cortical morphometry, namely brain size, microstructure, and the geodesic distances of connectivity profiles. For this, we computed a low dimensional representation of functional cortical organization, the sensory-association axis, and identified widespread sex differences. Contrary to our expectations, observed sex differences in functional organization were not fundamentally associated with differences in brain size, microstructural organization, or geodesic distances, despite these morphometric properties being per se associated with functional organization and differing between sexes. Instead, functional sex differences in the sensory-association axis were associated with differences in functional connectivity profiles and network topology. Collectively, our findings suggest that sex differences in functional cortical organization extend beyond sex differences in cortical morphometry.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)25
%9 Preprint
%R 10.1101/2023.11.23.568437
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1022128