Department of Radiology and Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2024 Apr;33(4):1057-1066. doi: 10.1007/s00787-023-02231-7. Epub 2023 May 22.
Psychological resilience reflects an individual's ability to adapt and cope successfully in adverse environments and situations, making it a crucial trait in resisting stress-linked mental disorders and physical diseases. Although prior literature has consistently shown that males are more resilient than females, the sex-linked neuroanatomical correlates of psychological resilience are largely unknown. This study aims to explore the sex-specific relation between psychological resilience and brain gray matter volume (GMV) in adolescents via structural magnetic resonance imaging (s-MRI). A cohort of 231 healthy adolescents (121/110 females/males), aged 16 to 20 completed brain s-MRI scanning and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and other controlling behavioral tests. With s-MRI data, an optimized voxel-based morphometry method was used to estimate regional GMV, and a whole-brain condition-by-covariate interaction analysis was performed to identify the brain regions showing sex effects on the relation between psychological resilience and GMV. Male adolescents scored significantly higher than females on the CD-RISC. The association of psychological resilience with GMV differed between the two sex groups in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex extending to the adjacent anterior insula, with a positive correlation among males and a negative correlation among females. The sex-specific association between psychological resilience and GMV might be linked to sex differences in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain maturation during adolescence. This study may be novel in revealing the sex-linked neuroanatomical basis of psychological resilience, highlighting the need for a more thorough investigation of the role of sex in future studies of psychological resilience and stress-related illness.
心理弹性反映了个体在逆境环境和情况下成功适应和应对的能力，是抵抗与压力相关的精神障碍和身体疾病的关键特征。尽管先前的文献一致表明男性比女性更有弹性，但心理弹性的性别相关神经解剖学相关性在很大程度上尚不清楚。本研究旨在通过结构磁共振成像（s-MRI）探索青少年心理弹性与大脑灰质体积（GMV）之间的性别特异性关系。一个由 231 名健康青少年（121/110 名女性/男性）组成的队列，年龄在 16 至 20 岁之间，完成了大脑 s-MRI 扫描以及 Connor-Davidson 韧性量表（CD-RISC）和其他控制行为测试。利用 s-MRI 数据，采用优化的基于体素的形态测量方法来估计区域 GMV，并进行全脑条件-协变量交互分析，以确定大脑区域在心理弹性与 GMV 之间的关系上显示出性别效应。CD-RISC 测试中，男性青少年的得分明显高于女性。心理弹性与 GMV 的关联在两个性别组之间在左侧腹外侧前额叶皮层延伸到相邻的前岛叶中存在差异，男性之间存在正相关，女性之间存在负相关。心理弹性与 GMV 之间的性别特异性关联可能与青春期下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和大脑成熟的性别差异有关。本研究可能在揭示心理弹性的性别相关神经解剖学基础方面具有新颖性，突出了在未来的心理弹性和与压力相关的疾病研究中更全面地研究性别的必要性。
