When we looked at the literature, there were some structural and functional differences between the transgender brain and the cisgender brain. I categorize these changes as structural and functional because they’re a little bit different when it comes to which areas are affected.
Postmortem studies, which focused on male-to-female transgender brain, found that the brain volumes of transgender women were similar to that of cisgender females in certain areas, such as the central nucleus of the bed stria terminalis or interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus. These are areas that are essential in sexual behaviors, and the fact that the transgender female brain resembles the cisgender brain was important.
Researchers also looked at some gray-matter volumes and cortical thickness. Again, transgender brains showed similarities to the identified gender even before the patients started hormonal treatment.
When it comes to functional findings, the fMRI findings of the transgender brain versus the cisgender brain, the self body image networks become very, very important. Within the self body image networks, there was decreased connectivity in the transgender population compared to the cisgender population, showing that there was an issue with body self-perception in transgender people.
Other functional studies looked at brain activation. People were given certain tasks, and the activation of certain brain areas was reviewed. Again, transgender people showed a lot of similarities to their identified gender as opposed to their biological gender.