Wednesday, Jun 25: 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM
1196
Roundtable
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Room: M4 (Mezzanine Level)
The consideration of sex-specific metrics in neuroscience research has never been more timely or critical. Recent studies have demonstrated that sex hormones significantly impact brain structure, function, and behavior, particularly in females, highlighting the need to capture and account for these effects when conducting neuroscience research. The upcoming release of tools that measure key female-specific reproductive metrics such as the Reproductive Health Survey by the Jacobs lab and the Ann S. Bowers Women's Brain Health Initiative offers researchers a standardized framework for collecting female reproductive health data, making it easier to incorporate these essential metrics into research. It is therefore timely to inform the OHBM community of such tools and discuss as a community the most appropriate and effective ways to integrate female reproductive health information into our analytic designs and interpretations. Importantly, for effective data integration and harmonization across studies, it is essential to start collecting these data now. Doing so will provide valuable insights into female brain function, behavior, and psychopathology, advancing our understanding of sex differences in neuroscience. Normalizing the collection and analysis of female-specific data across all studies is key to promoting more equitable research practices, ensuring both male and female participants are equally represented and considered. The learning outcomes of this session will equip researchers with the knowledge to: 1) understand the importance of considering sex differences in neuroimaging research; 2) understand the impact of female-specific metrics like menstrual cycle stage, hormonal contraceptive use, and life transitions such as menopause on the brain; 3) identify the minimum and gold standard metrics that should be collected; and 4) learn how to properly report and incorporate these metrics into data analyses, ultimately fostering a more balanced and comprehensive approach to neuroscience research.
1) Understand the chromosomal factors that influence sex differences in the brain and how they shape between- and within-group variance.
2) Understand why it is important to consider female-specific reproductive metrics in neuroscience research (i.e. menstrual cycle stage, hormonal contraceptive use, key life transition periods such as menopause).
3) Understand the bare minimum to gold standard metrics that should be collected when conducting neuroscience research with female participants and how these metrics should be reported and used in analyses.
The target audience for this round table are all researchers working with human neuroimaging that contains female participants, as well as researchers focused specifically on female health and sex-differences research.
Presentations
Humans show profound inter-individual variation in brain organization. The potential for sex differences in the sources of this variance has important consequences for both basic and clinical neuroscience. This talk will present recent work that: (i) asks if humans show reproducible sex differences in regional brain organization using large open multimodal neuroimaging datasets: (ii) tests for inter-individual coherence between these different phenotypic axes, and (iii) probes numerous potential sources of sex specific phenotypic variation. The results inform discussions on personalized neuroscience as a function of sex and the related, but distinct concept of gender.
For females, endogenous and exogenous sex hormones can play a significant role in neurocognition, mood and mental health at various life phases. This presentation will first briefly cover what we know about cognitive, brain, and mood changes associated with the menstrual cycle, different types of hormonal contraceptive pills, the role of menopausal hormone therapy in neurocognition, and associations between menopause, hormone therapy and later life cognitive decline. This will be followed by practical advice on when and how to consider the impact of both endogenous and exogenous sex hormones when designing a research project.
Women’s brain health is underfunded and understudied. Less than 0.5% of brain imaging publications consider health factors unique to women. There is an urgent need for a universal standard for how the broader research community collects health history data relevant to women’s brain health. Such a tool will enhance the rigor, reproducibility, and scale at which women’s health research can be conducted. The talk will discuss our team’s efforts to develop a gold standard reproductive health history assessment to allow large-scale data pooling efforts across research groups and the application of data-hungry AI tools for discovery science.
Presenter
Caitlin Taylor, Dr, University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA
United States
Accurately accounting for reproductive hormonal factors is essential for robust study design and advancing personalized medicine. Hormonal staging, the process of identifying and categorizing an individual's hormonal status at a specific point in time, is critical for disentangling the effects of specific hormonal phases, such as the menstrual cycle in females or diurnal testosterone rhythms in males, and for controlling the impact of hormonal fluctuations on outcomes like mood, cognition, and overall brain health. This talk will detail practical strategies for hormonal assessment, including timing measurements to specific hormonal phases, utilizing biomarkers, and addressing the influence of contraceptive use or hormonal therapies.
There is convincing evidence showing that key sex- and female-specific variables have direct impacts on brain, cognition, and behavior. However, accounting for such variables in analyses can be overwhelming. This presentation will outline different examples of how researchers can meaningfully incorporate sex- and female-specific variables into their analyses and reporting of results.
Presenter
Erynn Christensen, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research New York, NY
United States