Researchers in the U.S. have discovered differences in male and female brain structures that may explain why certain mental health conditions appear to be more peculiar to one gender than the other.
Some people have wondered why males are more likely to have conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than women. On the other hand, females have also been observed to be possibly more prone to anxiety and depression. This new study sought to shed light on these phenomena.
The U.S. researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Canada and New Zealand, observed differences in areas of the brain linked to memory processing, decision-making, and emotion regulation across genders. Their findings, after analyzing over 1,000 scans, provide insights into the reasons males and females have a tendency for distinct mental health conditions.
Probing the neural basis of disparities between genders, as done in this work, can aid in the development of more effective treatments.
Gender differences in mental health
For a long time, researchers have observed that males and females are more susceptible to different mental health conditions. There was no clear explanation for these disparities, however.
Previous research shows that female babies have almost two times the risk of being diagnosed with anxiety or mood disorders in later life, compared to their male counterparts. In the same way, male babies are three times more likely to have autism and twice likely to have ADHD than female babies, as they grow older.
One of the reasons that experts have speculated to explain these disparities is possible physical brain differences between males and females. Findings in animal studies seem to back this notion. However, there have been no human studies with similar findings until now.
Working out the differences
In this work, researchers studied 1,065 MRI scans of male and female brains. They honed in on subcortical gray matter regions, including the amygdala and the thalamus, previously linked to mental health. The team probed microstructural differences, including cell concentration, physical traits, and arrangement.
Following their examinations, the researchers reported “large, sex-related differences in microstructures.” They said these variations were still significant after factoring in differences in age and brain sizes.
In addition, the team discovered diffusion metrics in the amygdala and thalamus. It believes these may have a link to mental conditions, such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, and social skills problems. Further research on diffusion MRI imagery will help to better understand gender-biased mental conditions, the team noted.
These findings, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may prove helpful in developing more effective, gender-specific therapies for mental disorders.
References
Richard Watts et al (2024). Sex and mental health are related to subcortical brain microstructure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2403212121
Brain Microstructure May Show Why Men Are Prone to Autism and Women Anxiety (2024). https://www.newsweek.com/brain-structure-mental-health-autism-anxiety-1928666
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