TY  - JOUR
AU  - Clemens, Benjamin
AU  - Votinov, Mikhail
AU  - Puiu, Andrei Alexandru
AU  - Schüppen, Andre
AU  - Hüpen, Philippa
AU  - Neulen, Josef
AU  - Derntl, Birgit
AU  - Habel, Ute
TI  - Replication of Previous Findings? Comparing Gray Matter Volumes in Transgender Individuals with Gender Incongruence and Cisgender Individuals
JO  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
VL  - 10
IS  - 7
SN  - 2077-0383
CY  - Basel
PB  - MDPI
M1  - FZJ-2021-05986
SP  - 1454 -
PY  - 2021
AB  - The brain structural changes related to gender incongruence (GI) are still poorly understood. Previous studies comparing gray matter volumes (GMV) between cisgender and transgender individuals with GI revealed conflicting results. Leveraging a comprehensive sample of transmen (n = 33), transwomen (n = 33), cismen (n = 24), and ciswomen (n = 25), we employ a region-of-interest (ROI) approach to examine the most frequently reported brain regions showing GMV differences between trans- and cisgender individuals. The primary aim is to replicate previous findings and identify anatomical regions which differ between transgender individuals with GI and cisgender individuals. On the basis of a comprehensive literature search, we selected a set of ROIs (thalamus, putamen, cerebellum, angular gyrus, precentral gyrus) for which differences between cis- and transgender groups have been previously observed. The putamen was the only region showing significant GMV differences between cis- and transgender, across previous studies and the present study. We observed increased GMV in the putamen for transwomen compared to both transmen and ciswomen and for all transgender participants compared to all cisgender participants. Such a pattern of neuroanatomical differences corroborates the large majority of previous studies. This potential replication of previous findings and the known involvement of the putamen in cognitive processes related to body representations and the creation of the own body image indicate the relevance of this region for GI and its potential as a structural biomarker for GI
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:33916288
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000638651300001
DO  - DOI:10.3390/jcm10071454
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/904416
ER  -