TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex-related differences in intrinsic brain dynamism and their neurocognitive correlates
AU - de Lacy, Nina
AU - McCauley, Elizabeth
AU - Kutz, J. Nathan
AU - Calhoun, Vince D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Data were provided in part by the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project of Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital , (Principal Investigators: Randy Buckner, Joshua Roffman, and Jordan Smoller), with support from the Center for Brain Science Neuroinformatics Research Group , the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, and the Center for Human Genetic Research . 20 individual investigators at Harvard and MGH generously contributed data to the overall project.
Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of B. Ernesto Johnson in preparing figures. This study was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number KL2TR000421 to NdL, and NIH 2R01EB005846 , P20GM103472 , P30GM122734 and R01EB020407 and NSF 153906 to VDC. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. NL designed the study, performed the analysis and wrote the paper. VC helped design the study and contributed to writing the paper. NK and EM contributed to study design and writing the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/11/15
Y1 - 2019/11/15
N2 - The application of dynamic or time-varying connectivity techniques to neuroimaging data represents a new and complementary method to traditional static (time-averaged) methods, capturing additional patterns of variation in human brain function. Dynamic connectivity and related measures of brain dynamism have been detailed in neurotypical brain function, during human development and across neuropsychiatric disorders, and linked to cognitive control and executive function abilities. Despite this large and growing body of work, little is known about whether sex-related differences are present in dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism, a question pertinent to our understanding of brain function in both health and disease, given the sex bias observed in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders, and well-demonstrated sex-related differences in the performance of certain neurocognitive tasks. We present the first analyses of sex-related effects in dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism referenced to neurocognitive function, in a large sample of sex-, age- and motion-matched subjects in 24- and 51-network whole brain functional parcellations. We demonstrate that sexual dimorphism is present in human dynamic connectivity and in multiple high-order measures of brain dynamism, as well as validating prior work that sex-related differences exist in static intrinsic connectivity. We also provide the first evidence suggesting a link between differential neurocognitive performance by males and females and brain functional dynamics. Reduced dynamism in females, who spend more time in certain brain states and switch states less frequently, may provide a ‘stickier’ functional substrate associated with slower response inhibition, whereas males exhibit greater dynamic fluidity, change between certain states more often and range over a larger state space, achieving superior performance in mental rotation, which demands an iterative visualization and problem-solving approach. We conclude that sex is an important variable to consider in functional MRI experiments and the analysis of dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism.
AB - The application of dynamic or time-varying connectivity techniques to neuroimaging data represents a new and complementary method to traditional static (time-averaged) methods, capturing additional patterns of variation in human brain function. Dynamic connectivity and related measures of brain dynamism have been detailed in neurotypical brain function, during human development and across neuropsychiatric disorders, and linked to cognitive control and executive function abilities. Despite this large and growing body of work, little is known about whether sex-related differences are present in dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism, a question pertinent to our understanding of brain function in both health and disease, given the sex bias observed in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders, and well-demonstrated sex-related differences in the performance of certain neurocognitive tasks. We present the first analyses of sex-related effects in dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism referenced to neurocognitive function, in a large sample of sex-, age- and motion-matched subjects in 24- and 51-network whole brain functional parcellations. We demonstrate that sexual dimorphism is present in human dynamic connectivity and in multiple high-order measures of brain dynamism, as well as validating prior work that sex-related differences exist in static intrinsic connectivity. We also provide the first evidence suggesting a link between differential neurocognitive performance by males and females and brain functional dynamics. Reduced dynamism in females, who spend more time in certain brain states and switch states less frequently, may provide a ‘stickier’ functional substrate associated with slower response inhibition, whereas males exhibit greater dynamic fluidity, change between certain states more often and range over a larger state space, achieving superior performance in mental rotation, which demands an iterative visualization and problem-solving approach. We conclude that sex is an important variable to consider in functional MRI experiments and the analysis of dynamic connectivity and brain dynamism.
KW - Dimorphism
KW - Dynamic functional connectivity
KW - Dynamism
KW - Functional MRI
KW - ICA
KW - Intrinsic networks
KW - Sex-related
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116116
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116116
M3 - Article
C2 - 31446126
AN - SCOPUS:85071720260
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 202
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
M1 - 116116
ER -