Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Feb;5(2):265-272. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-00968-8. Epub 2020 Nov 2.
Many traits of the brain and body show marked sex differences, but the distributions of their values overlap substantially between the two sexes. To investigate variations associated with biological sex, beyond binary differences, we create continuous sex scores capturing the inter-individual variability in phenotypes. In an adolescent cohort (n = 1,029; 533 females), we have generated three sex scores based on brain-body traits: 'overall' (48 traits), 'pubertal' (26 traits) and 'non-pubertal' (22 traits). We then conducted sex-stratified multiple linear regressions (adjusting for age) using sex scores to test associations with sex hormones, personality traits and internalizing-externalizing behaviour. Higher sex scores (that is, greater 'femaleness') were associated with lower testosterone in males only, as well as lower extraversion, higher internalizing and lower externalizing in both sexes. The associations with testosterone, internalizing and externalizing were driven by pubertal sex scores, underscoring the importance of adolescence in shaping within-sex individual variability.
许多大脑和身体特征表现出明显的性别差异，但它们的值在两性之间有很大的重叠。为了研究除了二元差异之外与生物性别相关的变异，我们创建了连续的性别分数来捕捉表型的个体间变异性。在一个青少年队列中（n=1029；533 名女性），我们基于大脑-身体特征生成了三个性别分数：“整体”（48 个特征）、“青春期”（26 个特征）和“非青春期”（22 个特征）。然后，我们使用性别分数进行了性别分层的多元线性回归（调整年龄），以测试与性激素、人格特征和内外向行为的关联。更高的性别分数（即更大的“女性化”）与男性的睾丸激素水平降低以及两性的外向性降低、内向性升高和外向性降低有关。与睾丸激素、内向性和外向性的关联是由青春期性别分数驱动的，这强调了青春期在塑造同性别个体变异性方面的重要性。
