Grant: Project Grant

Adolescence is a time of rapid brain maturation that is partly influenced by sex hormones. We are currently using magnetic resonance imaging to assess the influence of sex hormones on brain structure. This project will take us one step further and use state-of-the-art functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques to better understand the influence of sex hormones on brain function. Specifically, we will examine how brain functioning of transgender adolescents, who strongly experience themselves as the opposite gender, differs from that of typically developing adolescents. One truly unique aspect of this project is that it will document how the functioning of the adolescent brain responds to sex hormone therapy. Because sex hormone therapy directly influences the sex hormones that are already in the body, this project will provide insight regarding how sex hormones affect the functioning of the adolescent brain. Surprisingly, even though sex hormone therapy is widely used to help transgender adolescents change from one gender to the other, its impact on brain function during this critical stage is largely unknown. Our research will also examine a very popular biological explanation of transgenderism, namely, that brain function is shifted in the direction of the other sex. Additionally, we will investigate whether there is a relationship between the structure of the brain and patterns of brain activity, as well as whether brain structure and function change together during sex hormone therapy.