New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Brains of girl and boy infants differ at birth -- while boy infants tend to have bigger brains and more white matter, girl infants have significantly more grey matter that is known to help with learning, speech and cognition, a study has shown.

The results, published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences, might reflect biological sex-specific differences as the brain is developing in the womb, according to researchers.

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White matter is made of long nerve fibres connecting neurons, thereby helping with communication between different parts of the brain.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, analysed brain scans of over 500 newborn babies - 236 girls and 278 boys - aged 0-28 days.

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"Our study settles an age-old question of whether male and female brains differ at birth. We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life," lead researcher Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, said.

"Because these sex differences are evident so soon after birth, they might in part reflect biological sex differences during prenatal (pre-birth) brain development, which then interact with environmental experiences over time to shape further sex differences in the brain," Khan said.

After taking this difference in total brain volume into account, the researchers looked at brain regions.

Girl infants, on average, showed larger grey matter volumes in areas related to memory and emotion regulation, while boy infants had larger grey matter volumes in areas involved in processing sensations and motor control.

"On average, males had significantly larger intracranial and total brain volumes, even after controlling for birth weight," the authors wrote.

The researchers stressed that the differences in brains of boys and girls are average differences, adding that they do not apply to all males or all females.

"These differences do not imply the brains of males and females are better or worse. It's just one example of neurodiversity. This research may be helpful in understanding other kinds of neurodiversity, such as the brain in children who are later diagnosed as autistic, since this is diagnosed more often in males," author Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, said.

Data for the study came from the Developing Human Connectome Project, led by universities in the UK, including King's College London, in which where infants receive an MRI brain scan soon after birth.

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