Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

Published:2023-05-08 Issue:20 Volume:120 Page:
ISSN:0027-8424
Container-title:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
language:en
Short-container-title:Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Author:

Zugman André¹,Alliende Luz María²³^ORCID,Medel Vicente⁴^ORCID,Bethlehem Richard A.I.⁵⁶^ORCID,Seidlitz Jakob⁷⁸⁹,Ringlein Grace¹,Arango Celso¹⁰,Arnatkevičiūtė Aurina¹¹¹²,Asmal Laila¹³,Bellgrove Mark¹¹,Benegal Vivek¹⁴^ORCID,Bernardo Miquel¹⁵^ORCID,Billeke Pablo¹⁶^ORCID,Bosch-Bayard Jorge¹⁷¹⁸,Bressan Rodrigo¹⁹,Busatto Geraldo F.²⁰^ORCID,Castro Mariana N.²¹²²²³^ORCID,Chaim-Avancini Tiffany²⁴,Compte Albert²⁵,Costanzi Monise²⁶,Czepielewski Leticia²⁶²⁷^ORCID,Dazzan Paola²⁸,de la Fuente-Sandoval Camilo²⁹^ORCID,Di Forti Marta³⁰³¹,Díaz-Caneja Covadonga M.¹⁰,María Díaz-Zuluaga Ana³²³³,Du Plessis Stefan¹³³⁴,Duran Fabio L. S.²⁴^ORCID,Fittipaldi Sol⁴³⁵³⁶³⁷^ORCID,Fornito Alex¹¹¹²^ORCID,Freimer Nelson B.³³,Gadelha Ary¹⁹,Gama Clarissa S.²⁶³⁸,Garani Ranjini³⁹^ORCID,Garcia-Rizo Clemente¹⁵,Gonzalez Campo Cecilia²³³⁵,Gonzalez-Valderrama Alfonso⁴⁰⁴¹,Guinjoan Salvador²³⁴²^ORCID,Holla Bharath⁴³⁴⁴,Ibañez Agustín⁴²³³⁵³⁶³⁷^ORCID,Ivanovic Daniza¹⁶^ORCID,Jackowski Andrea⁴⁵⁴⁶,Leon-Ortiz Pablo²⁹,Lochner Christine⁴⁷^ORCID,López-Jaramillo Carlos³²,Luckhoff Hilmar¹³,Massuda Raffael⁴⁸^ORCID,McGuire Philip⁴⁹⁵⁰⁵¹⁵²,Miyata Jun⁵³^ORCID,Mizrahi Romina³⁹⁵⁴⁵⁵^ORCID,Murray Robin⁵⁶^ORCID,Ozerdem Aysegul⁵⁷,Pan Pedro M.¹⁹⁵⁸,Parellada Mara¹⁰,Phahladira Lebogan¹³,Ramirez-Mahaluf Juan P.²^ORCID,Reckziegel Ramiro²⁶,Reis Marques Tiago⁵⁶^ORCID,Reyes-Madrigal Francisco²⁹^ORCID,Roos Annerine⁵⁹^ORCID,Rosa Pedro²⁴,Salum Giovanni³⁸⁵⁸^ORCID,Scheffler Freda⁵⁹,Schumann Gunter⁶⁰⁶¹,Serpa Mauricio²⁰,Stein Dan J.⁵⁹^ORCID,Tepper Angeles²^ORCID,Tiego Jeggan¹¹¹²,Ueno Tsukasa⁵³⁶²,Undurraga Juan⁴⁰⁶³^ORCID,Undurraga Eduardo A.⁶⁴⁶⁵⁶⁶^ORCID,Valdes-Sosa Pedro⁶⁷⁶⁸^ORCID,Valli Isabel²⁵⁵⁶^ORCID,Villarreal Mirta²¹²³⁶⁹,Winton-Brown Toby T.⁷⁰⁷¹,Yalin Nefize⁷²⁷³,Zamorano Francisco⁷⁴⁷⁵^ORCID,Zanetti Marcus V.²⁴⁷⁶,Winkler Anderson M.⁷⁷,Pine Daniel S.¹,Evans-Lacko Sara⁷⁸,Crossley Nicolas A.²⁴⁹^ORCID,Murthy Pratima,Chakrabarti Amit,Basu Debasish,Subodh B.N.,Singh Lenin,Singh Roshan,Kalyanram Kartik,Kartik Kamakshi,Kumaran Kalyanaraman,Krishnaveni Ghattu,Kuriyan Rebecca,Kurpad Sunita Simon,Barker Gareth J.,Bharath Rose D.,Desrivieres Sylvane,Purushottam Meera,Orfanos Dimitri P.,Sharma Eesha,Hickman Matthew,Heron Jon,Toledano Mireille B.,Vaidya Nilakshi,

Affiliation:

1. Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch (E & D), National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD 20894

2. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8330077, Chile

3. Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208

4. Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile

5. Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8AH, United Kingdom

6. Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom

7. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104

8. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104

9. Penn-Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Lifespan Brain Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104

10. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IISGM), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Madrid 28009, Spain

11. The Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3168, Australia

12. Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3168, Australia

13. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town 7602, South Africa

14. Centre for Addiction Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka 560029, India

15. Barcelona Clinic Schizophrenia Unit, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Departament de Medicina, Institut de Neurociències (UBNeuro), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques, August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Barcelona 08036, Spain

16. Laboratorio de Neurociencia Social y Neuromodulación, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (neuroCICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago 7610658, Chile

17. McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada

18. McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada

19. Interdisciplinary Laboratory in Clinical Neuroscience (LiNC), Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo 04039-032, Brazil

20. Departamento e Instituto de Psiquiatria, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05403-903, Brazil

21. Grupo de Investigación en Neurociencias Aplicadas a las Alteraciones de la Conducta (INAAC), Fleni-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Neurosciences Institute (INEU), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1428, Argentina

22. Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1114AAD, Argentina

23. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina

24. Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroimaging (LIM-21), Departamento e Instituto de Psiquiatria, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP), Faculdade de Medicina Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo SP 05403-903, Brazil

25. Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona 08036, Spain

26. Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry, Centro de Pesquisa Clínica, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre RS 90035-007, Brazil

27. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Instituto Psicologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre RS 90040-060, Brazil

28. Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom

29. Laboratory of Experimental Psychiatry, Direction of Research, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, Mexico City 14269, Mexico

30. Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom

31. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London, London SE5 8AZ, United Kingdom

32. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Antioquia, Medellín 050011, Colombia

33. Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90024

34. South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC), Genomics of Brain Disorders Unit, Cape Town 7505, South Africa

35. Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andres, Victoria, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina

36. Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin DO2 PN40, Ireland

37. Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158

38. Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS 90035903, Brazil

39. Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A12B4 Canada

40. Early Intervention Program, Instituto Psiquiátrico Dr. J. Horwitz Barak, Santiago 8431621, Chile

41. School of Medicine, Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago 7501015, Chile

42. Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK 74136

43. Department of Integrative Medicine, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560029, India

44. Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain disorders using Stem cells, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560029, India

45. Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04038-000, Brazil

46. Department of Education, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Learning, Østfold University College, Halden 1757, Norway

47. South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC) Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7505, South Africa

48. Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba PR 80060-000, Brazil

49. Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom

50. Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom

51. NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom

52. Oxford Health National Health Service (NHS), Foundation Trust, Oxford OX4 4XN, United Kingdom

53. Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan

54. Clinical and Translational Sciences Lab, McGill University, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC H4A 1R3, Canada

55. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada

56. Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom

57. Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota MN 55905

58. National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents, São Paulo 04038-000, Brazil

59. South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC) Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa

60. Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

61. PONS-Centre, Charité Mental Health, Dept of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Mitte, Berlin 10117, Germany

62. Integrated Clinical Education Center, Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto 606-8397, Japan

63. Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Clínica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo Vitacura, Santiago 7650568, Chile

64. Escuela de Gobierno, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, Chile

65. Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), Santiago 7820436, Chile

66. Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Azrieli Global Scholars Program, CIFAR, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada

67. The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China

68. Centro de Neurociencias de Cuba, La Habana 11600, Cuba

69. Department of Physics, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires C1428EGA, Argentina

70. Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia

71. Department of Psychiatry, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia

72. Centre for Affective Disorders, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom

73. South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS), Foundation Trust, London SE5 8AZ, United Kingdom

74. Unidad de Imágenes Cuantitativas Avanzadas, Departamento de Imágenes, Clínica Alemana de Santiago, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago 7650568, Chile

75. Facultad de Ciencias para el Cuidado de la Salud, Universidad San Sebastián, Santiago 7510602, Chile

76. Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo 01308-050, Brazil

77. Department of Human Genetics, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, Texas TX 78520

78. Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom

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.

Publisher

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Link

https://pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2218782120

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