Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Test of age-related variation in the craniometry of the adult human foramen magnum region
AU - Gapert, Rene
AU - Black, Sue
AU - Last, Jason
PY - 2013/12/1
Y1 - 2013/12/1
N2 - Sex differences in the foramen magnum region of the cranial base have been identified with varying rates of success. Recent publications demonstrate a continuing strong interest in metric analysis of the foramen magnum region for sex determination despite the generally low expression of cranial base sexual dimorphism. It is important to identify possible age effects on skull base morphometric variables as most reported discriminant analyses use pooled-age samples without assessing the influence of aging on sexual dimorphism. This study examined 135 adult cranial bases (69 males and 66 females) from the St. Bride's documented skeletal collection in London. Traditional craniometric measurements were recorded and the effect of age on sexual dimorphism of this anatomical region was tested using a variety of statistical analyses including MANOVA and discriminant function analysis. Age-dependent discriminant functions for 50 years of age were developed and compared. The cross-validated results showed that the 50 years function achieved 81.3 % correct predictions. However, the high sex biases of these functions (14.4 % and -17.5 %) severely limit their practical application. A pooled-age discriminant function permitted 71.9 % correct prediction with a sex bias of only -1.7 %. The statistical analyses also showed no significant age effect on any of the variables, suggesting that a separation by age is not necessary for the development of sex determination methods.
AB - Sex differences in the foramen magnum region of the cranial base have been identified with varying rates of success. Recent publications demonstrate a continuing strong interest in metric analysis of the foramen magnum region for sex determination despite the generally low expression of cranial base sexual dimorphism. It is important to identify possible age effects on skull base morphometric variables as most reported discriminant analyses use pooled-age samples without assessing the influence of aging on sexual dimorphism. This study examined 135 adult cranial bases (69 males and 66 females) from the St. Bride's documented skeletal collection in London. Traditional craniometric measurements were recorded and the effect of age on sexual dimorphism of this anatomical region was tested using a variety of statistical analyses including MANOVA and discriminant function analysis. Age-dependent discriminant functions for 50 years of age were developed and compared. The cross-validated results showed that the 50 years function achieved 81.3 % correct predictions. However, the high sex biases of these functions (14.4 % and -17.5 %) severely limit their practical application. A pooled-age discriminant function permitted 71.9 % correct prediction with a sex bias of only -1.7 %. The statistical analyses also showed no significant age effect on any of the variables, suggesting that a separation by age is not necessary for the development of sex determination methods.
KW - skull base
KW - sex differences
KW - aging
KW - forensic anthropology
KW - menopause
KW - St. Bride's documented skeleton collection
KW - physical anthropology
U2 - 10.1007/s12024-013-9437-3
DO - 10.1007/s12024-013-9437-3
M3 - Journal article
VL - 9
SP - 478
EP - 488
JO - Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology
JF - Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology
SN - 1547-769X
IS - 4
ER -