Abstract
Individuals with gender identity disorder (GID), who are commonly referred to as transsexuals (TXs), are afflicted by negative psychosocial stressors. Central to the psychological complex of TXs is the conviction of belonging to the opposite sex. Neuroanatomical and functional brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the GID is associated with brain alterations. In this study, we found that TXs identify, when viewing male-female couples in erotic or non-erotic (“neutral”) interactions, with the couple member of the desired gender in both situations. By means of functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that the TXs, as opposed to controls (CONs), displayed an increased functional connectivity between the ventral tegmental area, which is associated with dimorphic genital representation, and anterior cingulate cortex subregions, which play a key role in social exclusion, conflict monitoring and punishment adjustment. The neural connectivity pattern suggests a brain signature of the psychosocial distress for the gender-sex incongruity of TXs.
Highlights
On September 14, 2011, the Australian government declared that Australian citizens could register their preferred gender identities on their passports, with medical certificates from their regular physicians, to travel without fear of discrimination [1]
Recent anatomical and neuroimaging studies have revealed an association of transsexualism with functional and structural changes of the brain [27,28,29,30,31]
It has been reported that a female-sized bed nucleus of the stria terminalis was found in the male-to-female TXs (MTFs) [34]
Summary
On September 14, 2011, the Australian government declared that Australian citizens could register their preferred gender identities on their passports, with medical certificates from their regular physicians, to travel without fear of discrimination [1]. In May of 2012, the Argentinian government passed the Gender Identity Law that warrants free choice of gender [2]. These reforms were revolutionary steps for the evolution of human rights with regard to gender identification, signifying a shift away from negative social stereotypes. We studied individuals with GID, commonly referred to as transsexuals (TXs). Throughout their lives, TXs consistently suffer from negative psychosocial stressors [5,6,7,8]
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