Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents

• Verfasst von: Lenz, Bernd [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Gerhardt, Sarah [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Boroumand-Jazi, Rafat [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Eichler, Anna [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Buchholz, Verena Nadine [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Fasching, Peter Andreas [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Kornhuber, Johannes [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Banaschewski, Tobias [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Flor, Herta [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Guldner, Stella [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Prignitz, Maren [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Nees, Frauke [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents
• Verf.angabe: Bernd Lenz, Sarah Gerhardt, Rafat Boroumand-Jazi, Anna Eichler, Verena Nadine Buchholz, Peter A. Fasching, Johannes Kornhuber, Tobias Banaschewski, Herta Flor, Stella Guldner, Maren Prignitz, Frauke Nees, IMAC-Mind Consortium
• E-Jahr: 2023
• Jahr: September 2023
• Umfang: 12 S.
• Fussnoten: Online veröffentlicht: 30. November 2022 ; Gesehen am 02.07.2024
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience
• Ort Quelle: Darmstadt : Steinkopff, 1868
• Jahr Quelle: 2023
• Band/Heft Quelle: 273(2023), 6 vom: Sept., Seite 1243-1254
• ISSN Quelle: 1433-8491
• DOI: doi:10.1007/s00406-022-01515-4
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Anterior cingulate gyrus
• Sach-SW: Behavioral control
• Sach-SW: Digit ratio
• Sach-SW: Gender
• Sach-SW: Inferior frontal gyrus
• Sach-SW: Sex
• K10plus-PPN: 1893100383

Abstract

Prenatal androgenization associates sex-dependently with behavior and mental health in adolescence and adulthood, including risk-taking, emotionality, substance use, and depression. However, still little is known on how it affects underlying neural correlates, like frontal brain control regions. Thus, we tested whether prenatal androgen load is sex-dependently related to frontal cortex volumes in a sex-balanced adolescent sample. In a cross-sectional magnetic resonance imaging study, we examined 61 adolescents (28 males, 33 females; aged 14 or 16 years) and analyzed associations of frontal brain region volumes with the second-to-fourth digit length ratio (2D:4D), an established marker for prenatal androgenization, using voxel-based morphometry in a region-of-interest approach. Lower 2D:4D (indicative of higher prenatal androgen load) correlated significantly with smaller volumes of the right anterior cingulate cortex (r-ACC; β = 0.45) in male adolescents and with larger volumes of the left inferior frontal gyrus orbital part (l-IFGorb; β = - 0.38) in female adolescents. The regression slopes of 2D:4D on the r-ACC also differed significantly between males and females. The study provides novel evidence that prenatal androgenization may influence the development of the frontal brain in a sex- and frontal brain region-specific manner. These effects might contribute to the well-known sex differences in risk-taking, emotionality, substance use, and depression. Future research is needed to elucidate the role of prenatal androgenization within the biopsychosocial model.