Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Prog Brain Res. 2010;186:3-12. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53630-3.00001-4.
Over the past decades scientific studies have revealed a number of striking sex differences in the human brain. This chapter highlights some of the most important discoveries with particular emphasis on macro-anatomical observations based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Cross-references to animal studies and to post mortem analyses, as well as an overview with respect to micro-anatomical findings, are provided. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible determinants of sex differences in brain anatomy. The main goal of this chapter is to exemplify the variety of findings and to demonstrate how the presence, magnitude, and direction of observed sex differences strongly depend on a number of factors including (but not limited to) the following: the brain structure examined (cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, etc.), the specific brain feature assessed (cortical thickness, cortical convolution, etc.), the degree of regional specificity (global gray matter volume, voxel-wise gray matter volume, etc.), and whether measurements are adjusted for individual brain size or not.
在过去的几十年中，科学研究揭示了人类大脑中存在许多显著的性别差异。本章重点介绍了一些最重要的发现，特别强调了基于磁共振成像 (MRI) 数据的宏观解剖学观察。文中还提供了与动物研究和尸检分析的交叉引用，以及对微观解剖学发现的概述。最后，讨论了大脑解剖结构性别差异的可能决定因素。本章的主要目的是举例说明各种发现，并展示观察到的性别差异的存在、程度和方向如何强烈依赖于许多因素，包括但不限于以下因素：所检查的大脑结构（大脑皮层、胼胝体等）、评估的特定大脑特征（皮质厚度、皮质褶皱等）、区域特异性程度（整体灰质体积、体素水平灰质体积等），以及测量是否针对个体大脑大小进行了调整。
