Does the brain of a transgender woman resemble more that of the people who share her gender identity, or that of those who share her sex assigned at birth? It is one of the classic questions in the neurobiology of gender dysphoria, and a new study published in Scientific Reports in 2026 provides relevant data.
Researchers at Central South University (Changsha) compared the brain activity of 16 transgender women with that of 16 cisgender men and 16 cisgender women using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The aim was to analyse both the local activity of different regions and the connections between distant regions of the brain.
The results show that transgender women present a pattern of brain function of their own that sets them apart from the cisgender groups. A greater amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations was observed in the cerebellum, the precentral gyrus and the thalamus, as well as lower regional homogeneity in the precuneus. They also showed weaker functional connections, above all in the ventral attention and sensorimotor networks, in addition to a lower local efficiency of their brain networks.
Most striking of all: on most of these measures, cisgender men occupied an intermediate position between transgender women and cisgender women. In other words, the pattern of transgender women, though distinctive, aligned more closely with that of their sex assigned at birth than with that of their gender identity.
This finding fits a recurring hypothesis in the literature: that the brain of transgender people combines features of both groups, with traits of its own and an organisation that does not fully coincide with either gender identity or the sex assigned at birth.
The authors stress that this is an exploratory study with a small sample (16 participants per group) and that its results must be confirmed in larger cohorts. Even so, the work adds evidence on the biological bases of gender identity and opens the door to more tailored interventions to reduce the psychological distress associated with gender incongruence.
Reference: Li, X., Xiang, Z., Liu, D. et al. Comparing local brain activity and distant functional connectivity in transgender women compared to cisgender controls. Scientific Reports (2026).
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