Biological Sex and Gender-Related Vulnerability in Psychiatric Disorders

Biological sex and sociocultural gender represent two main sources of interindividual diversity in respect to cell homeostasis, organ resistance to pathogenic agents and vulnerability to stressful life events. Several lines of evidence indicate that sex and gender may interfere with disease process from risk, to clinical expression, to response to therapy. Basic research and psychiatric epidemiology have demonstrated sex- and gender-specific effects on the molecular expression, prevalence and incidence of frequent psychiatric disorders such as unipolar depression, anorexia nervosa, and borderline personality. More recent contributions revealed major sex- and gender-related differences in trauma exposure and post-traumatic reactions. In rodents, females employ different stress-coping strategies and in humans, women are more likely to experience sexual and intimate violence, childhood trauma exposure, and repeated trauma exposures. Childhood abuse report led to more mood symptoms, and more suicide attempts in women compared to men. Whether these differences reflect a dominant effect of sex-associated endocrine regulation or the power of sociocultural factors such as media and gender inequality is matter of intense scientific debate. Adding to the complexity of the field, structural neuroimaging studies focusing on brain asymmetry and corticolimbic structures support the idea that schizophrenia or bipolar disorder may affect the normal sexual dimorphism. Sex- and gender-related differences have been also described in neural activation and functional connectivity during emotional and social preference tasks both in basic rodent research as well as healthy controls and psychiatric patients.

This Research Topic aims to group scientific contributions addressing the effect of biological sex and/or sociocultural gender on brain activation, cognitive processing and emotional reactivity in the course of psychiatric disorders. Special attention will be paid to research work on socially challenging issues such as the differences in neuroanatomical and functional signature of psychiatric disorders between sexes as well as cisgender and transgender, or gender impact on brain compensation strategies after sexual violence. We welcome the submission of manuscripts either describing original data from basic, translational and clinical research or reviewing the relevant scientific literature, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses.