Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents
Lenz B, Gerhardt S, Boroumand-Jazi R, Eichler A, Buchholz VN, Fasching P, Kornhuber J, Banaschewski T, Flor H, Guldner S, Prignitz M, Nees F (2022)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2022
Journal
DOI: 10.1007/s00406-022-01515-4
Abstract
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; beta = 0.45) in male adolescents and with larger volumes of the left inferior frontal gyrus orbital part (l-IFGorb; beta = - 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.
Authors with CRIS profile
Anna Eichler
Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Peter Fasching
Professur für Translationale Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe
Johannes Kornhuber
Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Lenz, B., Gerhardt, S., Boroumand-Jazi, R., Eichler, A., Buchholz, V.N., Fasching, P.,... Nees, F. (2022). Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-022-01515-4
MLA:
Lenz, Bernd, et al. "Sex-specific association between prenatal androgenization (second-to-fourth digit length ratio) and frontal brain volumes in adolescents." European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience (2022).
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