The
prevalence, age of onset, and symptomatology of many neuropsychiatric
conditions differ between males and females. To understand the causes
and consequences of sex differences it is important to establish where
they occur in the human brain.
We report the first meta-analysis of
typical sex differences on global brain volume, a descriptive account of
the breakdown of studies of each compartmental volume by six age
categories, and whole-brain voxel-wise meta-analyses on brain volume and
density. Gaussian-process regression coordinate-based meta-analysis was
used to examine sex differences in voxel-based regional volume and
density. On average, males have larger total brain volumes than females.
Examination of the breakdown of studies providing total volumes by age
categories indicated a bias towards the 18–59 year-old category.
Regional sex differences in volume and tissue density include the amygdala, hippocampus and insula, areas known to be implicated in sex-biased neuropsychiatric conditions. Together, these results suggest candidate regions for investigating the asymmetric effect that sex has on the developing brain, and for understanding sex-biased neurological and psychiatric conditions.