Posted by Annapaola Prestia Laboratory of Epidemiology Neuroimaging and Telemedicine, IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio FBF, The National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer’s and Mental Diseases, Brescia, Italy

Neuroanatomical differences between men and women have been repeatedly observed. Sex differences in behaviours and cognitive performance have been well demonstrated. Statistically, men perform better in visuospatial perception processing, whereas women have advantages in language. In this study was hypothesized that the cortical network efficiency is different between women and men. 95 normal subject (males, 47; females, 48; age, 19-85 years) were enrolled in this study. The interregional connectivity probability derived from diffusion MRI probabilistic tractography, was used in order to describe the cerebral cortex as a weighted network of connected regions. Results revealed sex differences in the organization of the cortical networks. A stronger association has been found between cognitive performance and white matter volume in women. Has also been found a higher percentage of grey matter in women which explains a stronger cortical connectivity. The sex differences in regional efficiency provide a new insight into our understanding of the functional and cognitive specificity between women and men.