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

Autor: Lenz B; Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. bernd.lenz@zi-mannheim.de.; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany. bernd.lenz@zi-mannheim.de., Gerhardt S; Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Boroumand-Jazi R; Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Eichler A; Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany., Buchholz VN; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany., Fasching PA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany., Kornhuber J; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany., Banaschewski T; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Flor H; Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Guldner S; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.; Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Prignitz M; Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany., Nees F; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.; Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.; Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience [Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci] 2023 Sep; Vol. 273 (6), pp. 1243-1254. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 30.
DOI: 10.1007/s00406-022-01515-4
Abstrakt: 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.
(© 2022. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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