This article describes a new study using AI to identify sex differences in the brain with over 90% accuracy.
Key findings:
- An AI model successfully distinguished between male and female brains based on scans, suggesting inherent sex-based brain variations.
- The model focused on specific brain networks like the default mode, striatum, and limbic networks, potentially linked to cognitive functions and behaviors.
- These findings could lead to personalized medicine approaches by considering sex differences in developing treatments for brain disorders.
Additional points:
- The study may help settle a long-standing debate about the existence of reliable sex differences in the brain.
- Previous research failed to find consistent brain indicators of sex.
- Researchers emphasize that the study doesn’t explain the cause of these differences.
- The research team plans to make the AI model publicly available for further research on brain-behavior connections.
Overall, the study highlights the potential of AI in uncovering previously undetectable brain differences with potential implications for personalized medicine.
10% seems a bit more than was predicted, but would that account for those who don’t fit the peaks for the sexual dimorphism definitions, you think?
I think so. With a more diverse dataset and fewer binary assumptions baked into the analysis I think we’d start seeing the bimodal contours of a spectrum between the masculine and feminine peaks. The graphics included in the study seem to hint at this, showing nodes of similarity with a tapering tail toward the middle of the distribution for all three sets of data they analyzed:
IIRC Simon Baron Cohen’s studies on his (IMHO poorly named) extreme male brain theory of autism found that only 70% of men had “male brains”.