2023/11/15 by Marija Kundakovic, Marija Kundaković, Maria Tickerhoof +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Biology #Chromatin #Disease #Early Childhood Education and Development #Epigenetics #Gene #Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities #Genetics #Medicine #Neuroscience #Psychology #Sex and Gender in Healthcare #Sexual differentiation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2023.09.007
openalex publication_date 2023/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Sex differences are found across brain regions, behaviors, and brain diseases. Sexual differentiation of the brain is initiated prenatally but it continues throughout life, as a result of the interaction of three major factors: gonadal hormones, sex chromosomes, and the environment. These factors are thought to act, in part, via epigenetic mechanisms which control chromatin and transcriptional states in brain cells. In this review, we discuss evidence that epigenetic mechanisms underlie sex-specific neurobehavioral changes during critical organizational periods, across the estrous cycle, and in response to diverse environments throughout life. We further identify future directions for the field that will provide novel mechanistic insights into brain sex differences, inform brain disease treatments and women's brain health in particular, and apply to people across genders.