Sex Differences in Coupled Dynamic Functional Connectivity and Structural Brain Morphology: Insights from the ABCD Study

This study investigates sex-based differences in brain structure-function coupling using a novel dynamic intermodality source coupling (dIMSC) method, which we use to integrate dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) and structural brain morphometry (SBM) data from the ABCD study. This study aims to examine the coupling between dFNC and sMRI gray matter volume, comparing the coupling in relation to sex differences across brain regions. By examining the coupling between dFNC and SBM matrices, we identified distinct functional-structural coupling patterns across sexes in various brain regions. Females showed stronger correlations in areas previously associated with social and language processing, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule, while males exhibited stronger correlations in regions that have previously been linked to spatial processing, including the superior temporal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and cerebellum. These findings underscore nuanced sex-specific variations in brain structure-function relationships, offering insights into distinct patterns of the brain.