2D:4D digit ratio and brain volumes in alcohol use disorder
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- Chair of Clinical Psychology and Addiction Research
- Chair of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
- Chair of cognitive computational neuroscience
- Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH)
- Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (ScaDS.AI Dresden)
- Chair of Computer Architecture
- Faculty of Mathematics
- Chair of Biopsychology
- Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
- Department of Distributed and Data Intensive Computing (VDR)
- Heidelberg University
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) Partner Site Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ulm
- University of Potsdam
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) Partner Site Berlin-Potsdam
- University of Tübingen
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) Partner Site Tübingen
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Abstract
Background: Prenatal androgen exposure organizes the development of the brain with permanent effects on brain structure and function. The second-to-fourth digit length ratio (2D:4D) has been associated with mental illnesses, including addictive disorders, with some studies reporting sex-dependent associations. Preliminary evidence suggests that in healthy male adolescents lower 2D:4D (indicating higher prenatal androgenization) is related to lower volumes of the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) which has previously been linked to a higher risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD). We aimed at transferring this association into an older cohort with AUD. Further, we explored relationships between 2D:4D and brain volumes on a whole brain level. Methods: We investigated 253 men and 155 women with AUD (mean age 37.31 ± 12.54 years) and associated mean of the right and left hand 2D:4D (M2D:4D = primary predictor) with brain volumes from 3 T MRI using FreeSurfer. Results: We found that lower M2D:4D was associated with smaller right ACC volume in men using a pre-specified directional one-tailed test. Secondary subsegment analyses indicated this association may primarily be observed in the right caudal ACC. Exploratory analyses suggested sex- and hemisphere-stratified associations with other brain volumes, unaffected by age moderation and largely robust after adjustment for education and AUD criteria count across models examined. Discussion: In line with previous findings, the results indicate that in men with AUD, lower 2D:4D ratios are associated with smaller right ACC volumes. The findings contribute to understanding brain variability in AUD.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 4 Sept 2026 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| ORCID | /0000-0002-8845-8803/work/229890256 |
|---|---|
| ORCID | /0000-0002-2198-6521/work/229890460 |
| ORCID | /0000-0001-5232-5729/work/229893319 |
| ORCID | /0000-0002-2989-9561/work/229893435 |
| ORCID | /0000-0002-6833-5638/work/229893496 |
| ORCID | /0000-0001-8870-0041/work/229893574 |
| ORCID | /0000-0001-8761-984X/work/229893603 |
| ORCID | /0000-0001-5398-5569/work/229893662 |
| ORCID | /0000-0003-3820-655X/work/229893797 |
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- 2D:4D, Alcohol use disorder, Brain volumes, Cortical volumes, Digit ratio, Neuroimaging, Prenatal androgen exposure, Sexual dimorphism