3.3. Psychophysiological interactions
Task-related connectivity via PPI analysis revealed that females had stronger functional connectivity between the left OFC and bilateral somatosensory cortex, bilateral middle cingulate cortex and precuneus, compared to males (Figure 2b). Gestational weeks and age at scan from birth did not differ between groups (see Table 1), nevertheless second-level PPI models were not controlled for the effects of these two variables. Results of left-OFC connectivity networks in the smaller sample (N = 13) partially resemble results obtained from the whole sample and are reported in the Supplementary Material (Figure S3). Considering right-OFC as seed-region, no significant results emerged in the whole sample (N = 18) and in the smaller sample (N= 13).