Schedule of Events | Symposia

Postdoctorial Fellowship Award Winner

Brain functional connectivity, but not neuroanatomy, captures the interrelationship between sex and gender in preadolescents

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Athanasia Metoki¹ (nasia.metoki@gmail.com), Roselyne Chauvin¹, Evan M. Gordon¹, Timothy O. Laumann¹, Benjamin P. Kay¹, Samuel R. Krimmel¹, Scott Marek¹, Anxu Wang¹, Andrew N. Van¹, Noah J. Baden¹, Vahdeta Suljic¹, Kristen M. Scheidter¹, Julia Monk¹, Forrest I. Whiting¹, Nadeshka J. Ramirez-Perez², Deanna M. Barch¹, Aristeidis Sotiras¹, Nico U.F. Dosenbach¹; ¹Washington University in St. Louis, ²Harvard University

Understanding sex differences in the adolescent brain is crucial as these differences are linked to sex-specific neurological and psychiatric conditions. Predicting sex from adolescent brain data may offer insights into how these differences influence neurodevelopment. Recently, attention has shifted toward exploring socially-identified gender (distinct from sex assigned at birth), recognizing its explanatory power. This study evaluates whether resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) or cortical thickness more effectively predicts sex and sex/gender alignment (the congruence between sex and gender) and investigates their interrelationship in preadolescents. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, we applied machine learning to predict sex and sex/gender alignment from rsFC and cortical thickness. rsFC predicted sex more accurately (86%) than cortical thickness (75%). Brain regions most effective in predicting sex belonged to association (default mode, dorsal attention, and parietal memory) and visual networks. The rsFC classifier trained on sex/gender aligned youth was more accurate in classifying unseen youth with sex/gender alignment than unalignment. In females, their rsFC sex profile was positively associated with sex/gender alignment. However, neither rsFC nor cortical thickness predicted sex/gender alignment. These findings highlight rsFC’s ability to capture the complex relationship between sex, gender, the brain’s functional connectivity, and neuroanatomy.

Topic Area: OTHER