Sex differences in brain homotopic co-activations: a meta-analytic study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Brain Imaging
• Functional Connectivity

Background:

• Homotopic connectivity (HC) is crucial for interhemispheric communication via the corpus callosum.
• Limited research exists on sex differences in HC, with existing brain databases showing a sex bias in study populations.

Approach:

• Utilized a coordinate-based meta-analytic method on BrainMap database data.
• Implemented sampling procedures to equalize dataset sizes and proportions for sex-based comparisons.

Key Points:

• Females demonstrate significantly stronger interhemispheric co-activation than males, suggesting reduced brain lateralization.
• Males exhibit more widespread but less intense co-activation compared to females.
• Primary motor and perceptual regions show higher co-activation in males, contrasting with broader patterns in females.

Conclusions:

• The female brain appears more integrated, while the male brain shows more extensive, less localized co-activation.
• Sex differences in brain connectivity are multidimensional and require complex modeling.
• Findings challenge simplistic views of sex dimorphism in brain function.