this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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165
AI Determines Sex of Person From Brain Scans - Neuroscience News (neurosciencenews.com)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
58 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

How can they say the differences are inherent? Wouldn’t you have to control for someone’s entire socialization to say that?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Clarify why that would be necessary, I'm not following your argument well.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They can’t rule out the potential explanation that being raised male changes your brain in a different way than being raised female without having subjects that were raised differently than their birth sex. You would have to control for that variable in order to rule it out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Many thanks. Obviously, getting brain scans of infants is... difficult, so I wonder if one could proxy that. Maybe feed it brain scans from cultures with significant gender role differences and see if any performance differences are significant?

I'd also be very curious how it sorted transgender individuals. I remember reading something years ago about transgender brains being structured like the sex with which they identify, but that was a long time ago and my critical reading skills have come a long way since then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Last I read regarding trans brains: it's a confusing mishmash and unclear if brains are even as sexed as they seem outside of just size. If they are though, it seems like probably trans brains are at least somewhere in between? More research definitely appreciated.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You can't point to a difference and say it's (directly) caused by chromosomes or the SRY gene or hormones, whatever. Brain differences increase with age, suggesting that they may be more to do with socialisation than genetics. Does this evidence prove that women should be treated differently or is it evidence that women are, in fact, treated differently?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

The article touches on your question. It says that it's too earlier to know if the differences are caused by hormones, chromosomes, or socialization. No point in speculating.