
The frontal sinus is between and above the eyebrows Form each person’s unique shape, like a fingerprint. Since 1925, forensic anthropologists have used them to help identify human remains when teeth or other medical records are lost.
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) found that hermaphroditism has a greater impact on frontal sinus development than an individual’s ancestry, And the interaction between these two factors produced the most dramatic changes.
“It’s a shared drive to be curious about ourselves, our backgrounds and our bodies. This The study takes a fascinating structure that is as unique to individuals as their fingerprints, and begins to shed light on what causes this trait to be so special to each individual,” said corresponding author Sean Tallman, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology. Say. Former graduate student Austin Shamlou, MS, now a research technician at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a co-author of the study.
Researchers analyzed computed tomography (CT) images of more than 300 individuals who were designated male or female at birth. Individuals were also categorized by African, Asian, European, or Latino ancestral background. The author used Photoshop to create the frontal sinus contour layer by layer and measured the maximum height, width and depth. These frontal sinus contours were divided into three groups and compared with variables. The study concluded that neither assigned sex nor ancestry significantly affected sinus shape when assigned sex and ancestry were considered separately, but that there were significant differences in maximum height and maximum depth when the two factors were considered together .
“Interestingly, the interaction of sexual dimorphism and adaptive population history affects frontal sinus size ,” Talman said, adding that a clear pattern has not yet been found.
Tallman said further research is needed to address the question of why the frontal sinus forms a unique structure for each person. He warns that in the United States, sinus variation has not declined along ancestral routes, suggesting that there is significant overlap in ancestral climates, or that climate adaptation no longer affects variation in the United States
These findings are published online in the journal Biology .
Further information: Frontal sinus morphology and size changes seen on computed tomography,
Biology (2022). DOI: 10.3390/biology11081145 , www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/8/1145
Citation : Researchers Find Interaction of Ancestry and Sexual Dimorphism Significantly Affects Growth Patterns of Frontal Sinus (29 Jul 2022), Retrieved 27 Aug 2022, from https://medicalxpress.com/news/ 2022-07-interplay-ancestry-sexual-dimorphism-significantly .html
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