Publications
1. Zugman, André; Alliende, Luz María; Medel, Vicente; Bethlehem, Richard A I; Seidlitz, Jakob; Ringlein, Grace; Arango, Celso; Arnatkeviči=ut.e, Aurina; Asmal, Laila; Bellgrove, Mark; Benegal, Vivek; Bernardo, Miquel; Billeke, Pablo; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Bressan, Rodrigo; Busatto, Geraldo F; Castro, Mariana N; Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany; Compte, Albert; Costanzi, Monise; Czepielewski, Leticia; Dazzan, Paola; Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo; Forti, Marta Di; Díaz-Caneja, Covadonga M; Díaz-Zuluaga, Ana María; Plessis, Stefan Du; Duran, Fabio L S; Fittipaldi, Sol; Fornito, Alex; Freimer, Nelson B; Gadelha, Ary; Gama, Clarissa S; Garani, Ranjini; Garcia-Rizo, Clemente; Campo, Cecilia Gonzalez; Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso; Guinjoan, Salvador; Holla, Bharath; Ibañez, Agustín; Ivanovic, Daniza; Jackowski, Andrea; Leon-Ortiz, Pablo; Lochner, Christine; López-Jaramillo, Carlos; Luckhoff, Hilmar; Massuda, Raffael; McGuire, Philip; Miyata, Jun; Mizrahi, Romina; Murray, Robin; Ozerdem, Aysegul; Pan, Pedro M; Parellada, Mara; Phahladira, Lebogan; Ramirez-Mahaluf, Juan P; Reckziegel, Ramiro; Marques, Tiago Reis; Reyes-Madrigal, Francisco; Roos, Annerine; Rosa, Pedro; Salum, Giovanni; Scheffler, Freda; Schumann, Gunter; Serpa, Mauricio; Stein, Dan J; Tepper, Angeles; Tiego, Jeggan; Ueno, Tsukasa; Undurraga, Juan; Undurraga, Eduardo A; Valdes-Sosa, Pedro; Valli, Isabel; Villarreal, Mirta; Winton-Brown, Toby T; Yalin, Nefize; Zamorano, Francisco; Zanetti, Marcus V; cVEDA,; Winkler, Anderson M; Pine, Daniel S; Evans-Lacko, Sara; Crossley, Nicolas A
Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural
differences in the brains of women and men Journal Article
In: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., vol. 120, no. 20, pp. e2218782120, 2023.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: gender inequality; sex differences; structural brain MRI
@article{Zugman2023-jb,
title = {Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural
differences in the brains of women and men},
author = {André Zugman and Luz María Alliende and Vicente Medel and Richard A I Bethlehem and Jakob Seidlitz and Grace Ringlein and Celso Arango and Aurina Arnatkeviči=ut.e and Laila Asmal and Mark Bellgrove and Vivek Benegal and Miquel Bernardo and Pablo Billeke and Jorge Bosch-Bayard and Rodrigo Bressan and Geraldo F Busatto and Mariana N Castro and Tiffany Chaim-Avancini and Albert Compte and Monise Costanzi and Leticia Czepielewski and Paola Dazzan and Camilo Fuente-Sandoval and Marta Di Forti and Covadonga M Díaz-Caneja and Ana María Díaz-Zuluaga and Stefan Du Plessis and Fabio L S Duran and Sol Fittipaldi and Alex Fornito and Nelson B Freimer and Ary Gadelha and Clarissa S Gama and Ranjini Garani and Clemente Garcia-Rizo and Cecilia Gonzalez Campo and Alfonso Gonzalez-Valderrama and Salvador Guinjoan and Bharath Holla and Agustín Ibañez and Daniza Ivanovic and Andrea Jackowski and Pablo Leon-Ortiz and Christine Lochner and Carlos López-Jaramillo and Hilmar Luckhoff and Raffael Massuda and Philip McGuire and Jun Miyata and Romina Mizrahi and Robin Murray and Aysegul Ozerdem and Pedro M Pan and Mara Parellada and Lebogan Phahladira and Juan P Ramirez-Mahaluf and Ramiro Reckziegel and Tiago Reis Marques and Francisco Reyes-Madrigal and Annerine Roos and Pedro Rosa and Giovanni Salum and Freda Scheffler and Gunter Schumann and Mauricio Serpa and Dan J Stein and Angeles Tepper and Jeggan Tiego and Tsukasa Ueno and Juan Undurraga and Eduardo A Undurraga and Pedro Valdes-Sosa and Isabel Valli and Mirta Villarreal and Toby T Winton-Brown and Nefize Yalin and Francisco Zamorano and Marcus V Zanetti and cVEDA and Anderson M Winkler and Daniel S Pine and Sara Evans-Lacko and Nicolas A Crossley},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-05-01},
journal = {Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.},
volume = {120},
number = {20},
pages = {e2218782120},
abstract = {Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a
higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic
achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain
is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental
experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions
for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be
reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could
be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes
in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a
random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface
area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a
meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as
an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of
139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI
scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and
particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial
orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no
differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared
to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices
in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point
to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on
women's brains and provide initial evidence for
neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.},
keywords = {gender inequality; sex differences; structural brain MRI},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a
higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic
achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain
is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental
experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions
for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be
reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could
be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes
in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a
random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface
area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a
meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as
an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of
139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI
scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and
particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial
orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no
differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared
to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices
in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point
to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on
women's brains and provide initial evidence for
neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.