Sexual dimorphism on functional MRI was reported in only three studies of healthy children and adolescents (Zuo et al. 2010; Wu et al. 2013; Ratnarajah et al. 2013). However, multiple fMRI studies in adults found evidence for sexual dimorphism in emotional perception and memory, fear conditioning and visuospatial abilities (Sacher et al. 2013). While no age-by-gender interactions in global network parameters were found, girls and boys have different developmental patterns of the functional brain networks associated with visuospatial function (left cuneus and left superior parietal gyrus) and emotion processing (left rectus gyrus). Boys showed an age-related increase, while girls showed age-related decrease, in the regional nodal properties in the left superior parietal gyrus (Wu et al. 2013). No gender differences in structural connectivity asymmetry was found in neonates (Ratnarajah et al. 2013) despite the rapid synaptic proliferation in neonates (Gilmore et al. 2007; Qiu et al. 2013).
