RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mouse MRI shows brain areas larger in males emerge earlier than those larger in females
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 172841
DO 10.1101/172841
A1 Lily R. Qiu
A1 Darren J. Fernandes
A1 Kamila U. Szulc
A1 Jun Dazai
A1 Brian J. Nieman
A1 Daniel H. Turnbull
A1 Mark R. Palmert
A1 Jason P. Lerch
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/04/172841.abstract
AB Sex differences exist in behaviours, disease and neuropsychiatric disorders. Sexual dimorphisms however, have yet to be studied across the whole brain and across a comprehensive time course of postnatal development. We used manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to longitudinally image male and female C57BL/6J mice across 9 time points, beginning at postnatal day 3. We recapitulated findings on canonically dimorphic areas, demonstrating the ability of MEMRI to study neuroanatomical sex differences. We discovered, upon whole-brain volume correction, that neuroanatomical regions larger in males develop early in life, while regions larger in females develop in peripubertal life. Furthermore, we found groups of areas with shared sexually dimorphic developmental trajectories that reflect behavioural and functional networks, and expression of genes involved with sex processes. Our results demonstrate the ability of MEMRI to reveal comprehensive developmental differences between male and female brains, which will improve our understanding of sex-specific predispositions to various neuropsychiatric disorders.