Sex Differences in Longitudinal Trajectories of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Child Development and Adulthood

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) reflects the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the brain and is thus an important indicator of neuronal activity. CBF abnormalities have been described in a number of neuropsychiatric conditions that have pubertal onset and sex differences in clinical course. Previous research showed that grey matter CBF decreases with age, and that overall CBF is greater in women than men. However, less is known about these findings across development and into adulthood. Here, using MRI-based arterial spin labeling (ASL), we longitudinally measured CBF in a cohort of healthy children and adults aged 6-40 years.