As in the MDS plots regional differences are larger than sex differences. Particularly noticeable is the greater distance between the initial and final matrices for the anterior region, as well as the earlier peak of the excursion from linearity compared to the posterior region. In contrast to the MDS plots, where the linear progression emerged directly from the Euclidean representation of the data, the linear progression was assumed in the analysis procedure, but if there had been a greater deviation from linearity than that observed, the solid blue line in the plots would not be so close to linear.
