Studies concluding there are “no brain differences” fail to take a multivariate approach. In this PNAS study, when “a simple multivariate analysis using the same data suggests the opposite: Brains are indeed typically male or typically female.”https://www.pnas.org/content/113/14/E1966.long …
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Using a multivariate approach, this 2016 PNAS study found that they could accurately predict a brain’s sex 93-95% of the time. They conclude: “multivariate analyses of whole-brain patterns in brain morphometry can reliably discriminate sex.”https://www.pnas.org/content/113/14/E1968.long …
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This PNAS study showed how flawed univariate methods are for detecting group differences by showing how these methods cannot even accurately detect morphological differences BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIES OF MONKEY.https://www.pnas.org/content/113/14/E1965.long …
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They conclude, “If the methods of Joel et al. cannot demonstrate consistency in morphological features that distinguish distinct species, is it any wonder that they cannot demonstrate within-individual consistency in sexually differentiated brain structures & behaviors in humans?
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And sex differences can be found in human personality traits as well, especially in the Big 5 traits like agreeableness and neuroticism, and in the orientation of individuals toward “people” or “things.”https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00320.x …
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For a good summary on the appropriateness of using univariate vs multivariate approaches to detecting brain differences between the sexes, see
@WiringTheBrain's blog post: http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2017/08/debunking-male-female-brain-mosaic.html …Show this thread -
And also make sure to read this fantastic article as well.https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/sexual-personalities/201512/statistical-abracadabra-making-sex-differences-disappear …
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See also this: "Here we show, in a ground truth scenario, that a deep neural net can predict sex from scalp electroencephalograms with an accuracy of >80% (p < 10−5), revealing that brain rhythms are sex specific."https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21495-7 …
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And brain connectivity: "we achieved a gender prediction accuracy of 87% when multi‐run rfMRI was used. Permutation tests confirmed that gender prediction was reliable."https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hbm.23950 …
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Also neuroanatomy in youths: "The trained model exhibited an 83% cross-validated prediction accuracy, and correctly predicted the sex of 77% of the subjects from the independent multi-site dataset." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191830065X?via%3Dihub …
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And grey matter: "Models using components of brain gray matter volume and concentration were able to differentiate between males and females with greater than 93% generalizable accuracy."https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hbm.24462 …
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Special thanks to
@Scientific_Bird for informing me about the last few studies.Show this thread -
Sex differences in functional connectivity during fetal brain development "These observations confirm that sexual dimorphism in functional brain systems emerges during human gestation."https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929318301245?via%3Dihub …
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Sex differences in gene expression in the human fetal brain "In addition to 43 genes transcribed from the Y-chromosome in males, we detected sex differences in the expression of 2558 autosomal genes and 155 genes on the X-chromosome."https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/483636v1 …
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Sex differences in brain development and its relation to psychopathology.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0111-z …
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"The results obtained clearly show that it is possible to not only uniquely identify a subject, but also to use the intrinsic brain connectivity pattern to identify the subject’s sex."https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42090-4#Tab5 …
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New PNAS study: "Integrative structural, functional, and transcriptomic analyses of sex-biased brain organization in humans." https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/14/1919091117 …pic.twitter.com/X8xOVNxSTU
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