Abstract
Some of the known sex differences in white matter emerge during adolescence. Here, we replicate and extend our previous findings of sex differences in the structure of the corticospinal tract (Perrin et al. 2009; Hervé et al. 2009). In a large normative sample of adolescents, we observed age × sex interactions in the signal intensity of T1-weighted (T1W) images (n = 941) and in magnetization transfer ratio (MTR; n = 761); both features were inversely associated with age in males but not in females. Moreover, we hypothesized that the age-related differences in CST structure exhibited by males would be mediated by differences in puberty stage and levels of bioavailable testosterone. We confirmed this prediction using mediation analysis with bootstrapping. These findings suggest that sex differences in the CST structure observed during male adolescence may be due to multiple processes associated with puberty, including (but not limited to) the rising levels of testosterone.
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Notes
A discrepancy in the number of participants included in the creation of the GM probabilistic mask (for the creation of the CST mask) and the number of participants included in the T1W intensity analysis is due the following: registration failure for the CST mask and intensity scores or Z-scored bioavailable testosterone beyond three standard deviations from the mean.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the families that participated in the Saguenay Youth Study. We would also like to thank the following individuals who contributed to the study design, data acquisition and analysis for the Saguenay Youth Study: MR (Dr. Michel Bérubé, Sylvie Masson, Suzanne Castonguay, Julien Grandisson, and Marie-Josée Morin), Bioinformatics (Manon Bernard), psychometricians (Chantale Belleau, Mélanie Drolet, Catherine Harvey, Stéphane Jean, Hélène Simard, Mélanie Tremblay, and Patrick Vachon), ÉCOBES team (Nadine Arbour, Julie Auclair, Marie-Ève Blackburn, Marie-Ève Bouchard, Annie Houde, Catherine Lavoie, and Dr. Luc Laberge), and Julie Bérubé. Finally, we would also like to thank Dr. Jean Mathieu for the medical follow-up for participants presenting with any medically relevant abnormalities. Funding for the Saguenay Youth Study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Québec.
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Pangelinan, M.M., Leonard, G., Perron, M. et al. Puberty and testosterone shape the corticospinal tract during male adolescence. Brain Struct Funct 221, 1083–1094 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0956-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0956-9