Published

Santé publique et épidémiologie

Sex differences in neural correlates of common psychopathological symptoms in early adolescence

Published on - Psychological Medicine

Authors: Francesca Biondo, Charlotte Nymberg Thunell, Bing Xu, Congying Chu, Tianye Jia, Alex Ing, Erin Burke Quinlan, Nicole Tay, Tobias Banaschewski, Arun Bokde, Christian Büchel, Sylvane Desrivières, Herta Flor, Vincent Frouin, Hugh Garavan, Penny Gowland, Andreas Heinz, Bernd Ittermann, Jean-Luc Martinot, Hervé Lemaitre, Frauke Nees, Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos, Luise Poustka, Sabina Millenet, Juliane Fröhner, Michael Smolka, Henrik Walter, Robert Whelan, Edward Barker, Gunter Schumann

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Background: Sex-related differences in psychopathology are known phenomena, with externalizing and internalizing symptoms typically more common in boys and girls, respectively. However, the neural correlates of these sex-by-psychopathology interactions are underinvestigated, particularly in adolescence. Methods: Participants were 14 years of age and part of the IMAGEN study, a large ( N = 1526) community-based sample. To test for sex-by-psychopathology interactions in structural grey matter volume (GMV), we used whole-brain, voxel-wise neuroimaging analyses based on robust non-parametric methods. Psychopathological symptom data were derived from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results: We found a sex-by-hyperactivity/inattention interaction in four brain clusters: right temporoparietal-opercular region ( p