Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

André ZugmanLuz María AlliendeVicente MedelRichard A.I. BethlehemJakob SeidlitzGrace RingleinCelso ArangoAurina ArnatkevičiūtėLaila AsmalMark BellgroveVivek BenegalMiquel BernardoBILLEKE BOBADILLA, PABLO ERNESTOPABLO ERNESTOBILLEKE BOBADILLAJorge Bosch-BayardRodrigo BressanGeraldo F. BusattoMariana N. CastroTiffany Chaim-AvanciniAlbert CompteMonise CostanziLeticia CzepielewskiPaola DazzanCamilo de la Fuente-SandovalMarta Di FortiCovadonga M. Díaz-CanejaAna María Díaz-ZuluagaStefan Du PlessisFabio L. S. DuranSol FittipaldiAlex FornitoNelson B. FreimerAry GadelhaClarissa S. GamaRanjini GaraniClemente Garcia-RizoCecilia Gonzalez CampoAlfonso Gonzalez-ValderramaSalvador GuinjoanBharath HollaAgustín IbañezDaniza IvanovicAndrea JackowskiPablo Leon-OrtizChristine LochnerCarlos López-JaramilloHilmar LuckhoffRaffael MassudaPhilip McGuireJun MiyataRomina MizrahiRobin MurrayAysegul OzerdemPedro M. PanMara ParelladaLebogan PhahladiraJuan P. Ramirez-MahalufRamiro ReckziegelTiago Reis MarquesFrancisco Reyes-MadrigalAnnerine RoosPedro RosaGiovanni SalumFreda SchefflerGunter SchumannMauricio SerpaDan J. SteinAngeles TepperJeggan TiegoTsukasa UenoUNDURRAGA FOURCADE, JUAN PABLOJUAN PABLOUNDURRAGA FOURCADEEduardo A. UndurragaPedro Valdes-SosaIsabel ValliMirta VillarrealToby T. Winton-BrownNefize YalinZAMORANO MENDIETA, FRANCISCO JAVIERFRANCISCO JAVIERZAMORANO MENDIETAMarcus V. ZanettiAnderson M. WinklerDaniel S. PineSara Evans-LackoNicolas A. CrossleyPratima MurthyAmit ChakrabartiDebasish BasuB.N. SubodhLenin SinghRoshan SinghKartik KalyanramKamakshi KartikKalyanaraman KumaranGhattu KrishnaveniRebecca KuriyanSunita Simon KurpadGareth J. BarkerRose D. BharathSylvane DesrivieresMeera PurushottamDimitri P. OrfanosEesha SharmaMatthew HickmanJon HeronMireille B. ToledanoNilakshi Vaidya2023-06-052023-06-052023https://hdl.handle.net/11447/8836https://investigadores.udd.cl/handle/123456789/608510.1073/pnas.22187821202-s2.0-85158077844WOS:001030864700009Gender 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.Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and menResource Types::text::journal::journal article