Various reports have noted sexual dimorphism in dopamine system development in animal models (Andersen et al., 1997) and structural MRI work (Giedd et al., 2004). However, this area of research has been relatively under-studied in functional MRI studies, probably because of practical constraints imposed by relatively limited sample sizes in these studies. This effect is a critical area of study as there are prominent sex differences in the onset and maintenance of several mental health disorders that may be related to aberrant dopamine functioning (Paus et al., 2008).
