Eileen Luders, Francisco J. Sánchez, Duygu Tosun, David W. Shattuck, Christian Gaser, Eric Vilain, Arthur W. Toga
Center for Imaging Neurodegenerative Diseases, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington DC, USA.
Center for Society & Genetics, Department of Human Genetics, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.
Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA.
DOI: 10.4236/jbbs.2012.23040   PDF    HTML   XML   6,951 Downloads   14,139 Views   Citations

Abstract

Background: The degree to which one identifies as male or female has a profound impact on one’s life. Yet, there is a limited understanding of what contributes to this important characteristic termed gender identity. In order to reveal factors influencing gender identity, studies have focused on people who report strong feelings of being the opposite sex, such as male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals. Method: To investigate potential neuroanatomical variations associated with transsexualism, we compared the regional thickness of the cerebral cortex between 24 MTF transsexuals who had not yet been treated with cross-sex hormones and 24 age-matched control males. Results: Results revealed thicker cortices in MTF transsexuals, both within regions of the left hemisphere (i.e., frontal and orbito-frontal cortex, central sulcus, perisylvian regions, paracentral gyrus) and right hemisphere (i.e., pre-/post-central gyrus, parietal cortex, temporal cortex, precuneus, fusiform, lingual, and orbito-frontal gyrus). Conclusion: These findings provide further evidence that brain anatomy is associated with gender identity, where measures in MTF transsexuals appear to be shifted away from gender-congruent men.

Keywords

Brain; Cortex; Gender Identity Disorder; MRI; Transgender; Gender Dysphoria; Gender Incongruence; Gender Nonconformity

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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