Exploring neuroendocrine influences on the sensorimotor-association axis in a female and male individual

Serio, Bianca; Valk, Sofie; Yilmaz, Deniz; Grotzinger, Hannah; Jacobs, Emily; Eickhoff, Simon; Pritschet, Laura

doi:10.1162/imag_a_00474

Journal Article

FZJ-2025-01414

Exploring neuroendocrine influences on the sensorimotor-association axis in a female and male individual

Serio, B. (Corresponding author)FZJ* ; Yilmaz, D. ; Pritschet, L. ; Grotzinger, H. ; Jacobs, E. ; Eickhoff, S.FZJ* ; Valk, S.FZJ*

2025
MIT Press Cambridge, MA

Imaging neuroscience ., . (2025) [10.1162/imag_a_00474]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1162/imag_a_00474 doi:10.34734/FZJ-2025-01414

Abstract: Human neuroimaging studies consistently show multimodal patterns of variability along a key principle of macroscale cortical organization—the sensorimotor-association (S-A) axis. However, little is known about day-to-day fluctuations in functional activity along this axis within an individual, including sex-specific neuroendocrine factors contributing to such transient changes. We leveraged data from two densely sampled healthy young adults, one female and one male, to investigate intra-individual daily variability along the S-A axis, which we computed as our measure of functional cortical organization by reducing the dimensionality of functional connectivity matrices. Daily variability was greatest in temporal limbic and ventral prefrontal regions in both participants, and was more strongly pronounced in the male subject. Next, we probed local- and system-level effects of steroid hormones and self-reported perceived stress on functional organization. Beyond shared patterns of effects, our findings revealed subtle and unique associations between neuroendocrine fluctuations and intra-individual variability along the S-A axis in the female and male participants. In sum, our study points to neuroendocrine factors as possible modulators of intra-individual variability in functional brain organization, highlighting the need for further research in larger samples to assess the sex specificity of these effects.

Classification:

ddc:610

Note: We want to thank the Jacobs Lab at University of California, Santa Barbara, for openly sharing their data. B.S. was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Max Planck Society. H.G. was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH; AG063843). L.P. was funded by the NIH (AG074634 and AG079790). E.G.J. was funded by the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, UC Academic Senate, and the NIH (AG063843). S.B.E. was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (945539 [HBP SGA3], 826421 [VBC], and 101058516), the DFG (SFB 1451 and IRTG 2150), and the NIH (R01 MH074457). S.L.V. was funded by the Max Planck Society through the Otto Hahn Award.

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