Sex differences in the brain: More than just male or female.

Abstract

Sex differences in the brain are widely studied, but results are often inconsistent and it is assumed that many negative findings are not even being reported. The lack of consistent findings might be based on the highly questionable assumption of a clear-cut sexual dimorphism in brain structure and function, that underlies commonly used group comparisons between males and females. Without having to rely on this assumption, state of the art statistical learning methods based on large neuroimaging data sets might offer the tools necessary to disentangle the complex pattern of sex-related variations in brain structure and organization.