Generalizable sex differences in functional brain organization follow the cortical hierarchy in youth

In youth ages 5–23 years (N = 3,355), sex differences in functional connectivity follow the sensorimotor–association axis, with males showing more between-network connectivity and females more within-network connectivity.

• Why it matters: It is unclear whether sex-linked connectivity differences in developing brains reflect a single, general organizing rule rather than dataset-specific patterns.
• What they did: The study pooled four independent large-scale datasets of youth (ages 5–23 years) and tested whether connectivity differences align with the sensorimotor–association (S-A) cortical hierarchy.
• The result: Males had greater connectivity between networks, females had greater within-network connectivity—especially in the default mode network—and females showed a more expanded cortical hierarchy along the principal gradient.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.