Browsing by Author "Seidlitz, Jakob"

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    Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men
    (2023) Zugman, André; Alliende, Luz María; Medel, Vicente; Bethlehem, Richard A.I.; Seidlitz, Jakob; Ringlein, Grace; Arango, Celso; Arnatkevičiūtė, Aurina; Asmal, Laila; Bellgrove, Mark; Benegal, Vivek; Bernardo, Miquel; Billeke, Pablo; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Bressan, Rodrigo; Busatto, Geraldo F.; Castro, Mariana N.; Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany; Compte, Albert; Costanzi, Monise; Czepielewsk, Leticia; Dazzan, Paola; Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo de la; Forti, Marta Di; Díaz-Caneja, Covadonga M.; Díaz-Zuluaga, Ana María; Ples, Stefan Du; Duran, Fabio L. S.; Fittipaldi, Sol; Fornito, Alex; Freimer, Nelson B.; Gadelha, Ary; Gama, Clarissa S.; Garani, Ranjini; Garcia-Rizo, Clemente; Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia; Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso; Guinjoan, Salvador; Holla, Bharath; Undurraga, Juan
    Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women's brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.
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    Human development, inequality, and their associations with brain structure across 29 countries
    (2025) Medel, Vicente; Alliende, Luz M.; Bethlehem, Richard; Seidlitz, Jakob; Ringlein, Grace; Arango, Celso; Arnatkevičiūtė, Aurina; Asmal, Laila; Bellgrove, Mark; Benegal, Vivek; Bernardo, Miquel; Billeke, Pablo; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Bressan, Rodrigo; Busatto, Geraldo; Castro, Mariana; Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany; Costanzi, Monise; Czepielewski,Leticia; Dazzan, Paola; Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo de la; Diaz-Caneja, Covadonga M.; Forti, Marta Di; Diaz-Zuluaga, Ana Maria; Plessis, Stefan Du; Duran, Fabio; Fittipaldi, Sol; Fornito, Alex; Freimer, Nelson; Gadelha, Ary; Gama, Clarissa; Garani, Ranjini; Garcia-Rizo, Clemente; Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia; Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso; Guinjoan, Salvador; Ivanovic, Daniza; Undurraga, Juan; Zamorano, Francisco
    Background The macro-social and environmental conditions in which people live, such as the level of a country’s development or inequality, are associated with brain-related disorders. However, the relationship between these systemic environmental factors and the brain remains unclear. We aimed to determine the association between the level of development and inequality of a country and the brain structure of healthy adults. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study pooling brain imaging (T1-based) data from 145 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in 7,962 healthy adults (4,110 women) in 29 different countries. We used a meta-regression approach to relate the brain structure to the country’s level of development and inequality. Results Higher human development was consistently associated with larger hippocampi and more expanded global cortical surface area, particularly in frontal areas. Increased inequality was most consistently associated with smaller hippocampal volume and thinner cortical thickness across the brain. Conclusions Our results suggest that the macro-economic conditions of a country are reflected in its inhabitants’ brains and may explain the different incidence of brain disorders across the world. The observed variability of brain structure in health across countries should be considered when developing tools in the field of personalized or precision medicine that are intended to be used across the world.

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