@article{8634948b3a024249bae78d019f996082,
title = "Sex differences in functional connectivity during fetal brain development",
abstract = "Sex-related differences in brain and behavior are apparent across the life course, but the exact set of processes that guide their emergence in utero remains a topic of vigorous scientific inquiry. Here, we evaluate sex and gestational age (GA)-related change in functional connectivity (FC) within and between brain wide networks. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging we examined FC in 118 human fetuses between 25.9 and 39.6 weeks GA (70 male; 48 female). Infomap was applied to the functional connectome to identify discrete prenatal brain networks in utero. A consensus procedure produced an optimal model comprised of 16 distinct fetal neural networks distributed throughout the cortex and subcortical regions. We used enrichment analysis to assess network-level clustering of strong FC-GA correlations separately in each sex group, and to identify network pairs exhibiting distinct patterns of GA-related change in FC between males and females. We discovered both within and between network FC-GA associations that varied with sex. Specifically, associations between GA and posterior cingulate-temporal pole and fronto-cerebellar FC were observed in females only, whereas the association between GA and increased intracerebellar FC was stronger in males. These observations confirm that sexual dimorphism in functional brain systems emerges during human gestation.",
keywords = "Connectivity, Gestational age, MRI, Prenatal, Resting-state, Sex",
author = "Wheelock, {M. D.} and Hect, {J. L.} and E. Hernandez-Andrade and Hassan, {S. S.} and R. Romero and Eggebrecht, {A. T.} and Thomason, {M. E.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [ T32 MH100019 to MDW, K01 MH103594 to ATE, MH110793 and ES026022 to MET] and by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to MET. This research was also supported, in part, by the Perinatology Research Branch , Division of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine , Division of Intramural Research , Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , National Institutes of Health , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (NICHD/NIH/DHHS); and, in part, with federal funds from NICHD/NIH/DHHS under Contract No. HHSN275201300006C. Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [T32 MH100019 to MDW, K01 MH103594 to ATE, MH110793 and ES026022 to MET] and by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to MET. This research was also supported, in part, by the Perinatology Research Branch, Division of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Division of Intramural Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (NICHD/NIH/DHHS); and, in part, with federal funds from NICHD/NIH/DHHS under Contract No. HHSN275201300006C. We would like to thank Dustin Scheinost for the contribution of a fetal surface mesh for visualization purposes. The authors thank Pavan Jella, Sophia Neuenfeldt, Toni Lewis, Tamara Qawasmeh, Fatimah Alismail, and Nada Alrajhi for their assistance in data acquisition and analyses. We would also like to thank the participant families who generously shared their time. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019",
year = "2019",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100632",
language = "English",
volume = "36",
journal = "Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience",
issn = "1878-9293",
}