More similarity than difference: Comparison of within- and between-sex variance in early adolescent brain structure.

ABSTRACT: Adolescent neuroimaging studies of sex differences in the human brain predominantly examine average differences between males and females. This focus on mean differences without probing relative distributions and similarities may contribute to both conflation and overestimation of sex differences and sexual dimorphism in the developing human brain. We aimed to characterize the variance in brain macro- and micro-structure in early adolescence as it pertains to sex at birth using a large sample of 9-11-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 7,723). For global and regional estimates of gray and white matter volume, cortical thickness, and white matter microstructure (i.e., fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity), we examined: within- and between-sex va

SUBMITTER: Torgerson C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12406053 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature