DEVELOPMENTAL SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE RELATION OF NEUROANATOMICAL CONNECTIVITY TO INTELLIGENCE

Recent neuroimaging research has shown sex-related differences in the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function. Anatomical studies have shown a greater reliance for cognitive function on white matter structure in adult females, and a greater reliance on gray matter structure in adult males. Functional neuroimaging studies have also shown a greater correlation between brain connectivity and cognitive function in females. However, this relationship is not present in young childhood (5 years old) but appears during the developmental period. Here sex differences in structure–function relationships and their developmental trajectory are investigated using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on a large cohort of over 100 normal children ages 5–18. Significant sex–X–IQ interactions on fractional anisotropy (FA), a marker for white matter organization, were seen in the left frontal lobe, in fronto-parietal areas bilaterally, and in the arcuate fasciculus bilaterally, with girls showing positive correlations of FA with IQ, and boys showing a negative correlation. Significant sex–X–IQ–X–age interactions on FA were also seen in the left frontal lobe and in fronto-parietal areas bilaterally, showing a developmental effect. These results strongly corroborate previous findings regarding sex differences in structure–function relationships regarding intelligence. Results also indicate that a naïve interpretation of “more is better” with respect to FA may not be accurate, especially in adult males.