Gender Differences of Brain Glucose Metabolic Networks Revealed by FDG-PET: Evidence from a Large Cohort of 400 Young Adults

Yuxiao Hu,Hong Zhu,Rongfeng Qi,Guangming Lu,Qiang Xu,Zhiqiang Zhang,Kai Li,Stefano L Sensi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083821

Yuxiao Hu, Hong Zhu + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083821

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundGender differences of the human brain are an important issue in neuroscience research. In recent years, an increasing amount of evidence has been gathered from noninvasive neuroimaging studies supporting a sexual dimorphism of the human brain. However, there is a lack of imaging studies on gender differences of brain metabolic networks based on a large population sample.Materials and MethodsFDG PET data of 400 right-handed, healthy subjects, including 200 females (age: 25∼45 years, mean age±SD: 40.9±3.9 years) and 200 age-matched males were obtained and analyzed in the present study. We first investigated the regional differences of brain glucose metabolism between genders using a voxel-based two-sample t-test analysis. Subsequently, we investigated the gender differences of the metabolic networks. Sixteen metabolic covariance networks using seed-based correlation were analyzed. Seven regions showing significant regional metabolic differences between genders, and nine regions conventionally used in the resting-state network studies were selected as regions-of-interest. Permutation tests were used for comparing within- and between-network connectivity between genders.ResultsCompared with the males, females showed higher metabolism in the posterior part and lower metabolism in the anterior part of the brain. Moreover, there were widely distributed patterns of the metabolic networks in the human brain. In addition, significant gender differences within and between brain glucose metabolic networks were revealed in the present study.ConclusionThis study provides solid data that reveal gender differences in regional brain glucose metabolism and brain glucose metabolic networks. These observations might contribute to the better understanding of the gender differences in human brain functions, and suggest that gender should be included as a covariate when designing experiments and explaining results of brain glucose metabolic networks in the control and experimental individuals or patients.

Highlights

Gender differences of brain are issues being of continually common interest in neuroscience
Significant gender differences within and between brain glucose metabolic networks were revealed in the present study
These observations might contribute to the better understanding of the gender differences in human brain functions, and suggest that gender should be included as a covariate when designing experiments and explaining results of brain glucose metabolic networks in the control and experimental individuals or patients

Summary

Introduction

Gender differences of brain are issues being of continually common interest in neuroscience. Structural and functional imaging studies have revealed widely distributed regional differences between genders, both in the cortex and white matter [1,2,3,4,5,6]. These findings provide evidences for understanding the neural mechanism of gender differences involved in the cognitive [2,7,8,9], behavioral [10,11,12], developmental [3, 13,14] and disease [15] processes. There is a lack of imaging studies on gender differences of brain metabolic networks based on a large population sample

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion