Approved research

Sex and sexual orientation-related differences in brain structure: associations with victimisation, mental health outcomes and biomarkers

Lay summary

We are performing this study, because we know very little about the neurobiology of sexual orientation (whether someone is heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual) and brain differences between people of different sexualities. We do not know why some people develop a bi- or homosexual sexual orientation, nor has been clarified how heterosexuality develops. This may be one of the reasons why negative societal attitudes towards same-sex sexuality still exist globally. We do however know that people with minority sexual orientations (e.g., gay, lesbian and bisexual identified people or LGB) experience greater mental health difficulties. This is partly due to the fact that LGB people are exposed to greater social stigma, bullying and discrimination in their lives. We want to understand the impact of those negative experiences upon the brain. Thus, the goals of this project are to 1) quantify the brain patterns underlying differences in sexuality in adults; and 2) explore the association of experiences of victimisation and discrimination related stress to these sexuality-related brain patterns. We estimate the project duration to be approximately 18 months. We hope the findings will contribute to a better understanding of the diversity of human sexuality, and can promote better societal attitudes towards sexual minorities. This could in turn reduce minority related stress and improve mental health status of LGB people. In addition, our findings may provide neurobiological support for the observation that LGB people are at greater risk of mental ill-health, and could identify important targets for interventions aimed at reducing mental health problems in sexual minorities. This can help inform health provision, and better target health services towards LGBT people.