Grant: Operating Grant

Adolescence is a time of rapid brain growth that is partly influenced by sex hormones. This project will use state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging techniques to better understand how sex hormones guide brain development. Specifically, we will examine how the brains of transgendered adolescents, who strongly experience themselves as the opposite gender, differ from those of typically-developing adolescents. One truly unique aspect of this project is that it will document how 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 adolescent brain. Surprisingly, even though sex hormone therapy is widely used to help transgendered adolescents change from one gender to the other, its impact on brain development during this critical stage is largely unknown. Our research will also examine a very popular biological explanation of transgenderism, namely, that certain brain structures are shifted in the direction of the opposite sex. An additional unanswered question we will investigate is whether sex hormone therapy substantially reduces the gender-related distress these youth experience.