Gender Incongruence and Autistic Traits: Cerebral and Behavioral Underpinnings.

Autor: Khorashad BS; Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institute and University Hospital, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Pediatrics, Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA., Wang Y; Radiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.; MR Physics Unit, Department of Medical Radiation Physics and Nuclear Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden., Holmberg M; ANOVA, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden., Dhejne C; ANOVA, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.; Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden., Savic I; Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institute and University Hospital, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden. Ivanka.savic-berglund@ki.se.; Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Ivanka.savic-berglund@ki.se.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Archives of sexual behavior [Arch Sex Behav] 2024 May; Vol. 53 (5), pp. 1873-1884. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 22.
DOI: 10.1007/s10508-024-02809-5
Abstrakt: Gender dysphoria and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) co-occur at high rates. Yet, it is unknown whether gender dysphoria and ASD are associated with common or distinct neurobiological correlates or how they relate to experiences of gender-related body incongruence. Using the Social Responsiveness Scale, we assessed autistic traits in 99 transgender and 99 cisgender individuals and investigated their associations with gender-related body incongruence, measured via a visually based "Body Morph" test, and with cortical thickness in the brain. Autistic traits were significantly higher among transgender individuals, and those with higher autistic traits had higher body incongruence scoring. Among transgender individuals, higher autistic traits were linked with a thinner cortex bilaterally in the temporal pole and the superior and inferior temporal gyri. Autistic traits were only partly associated with cortical morphology patterns previously reported in transgender individuals; instead, they were primarily linked to temporal lobe areas mediating social cognition. While replicating the previous literature on the increased prevalence of autistic traits among transgender individuals, this study reports specific regions in the brains of transgender individuals where cortical thickness is associated with autistic traits.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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