AI Reveals Surprising Brain Differences in Boys and Girls…But Jury’s Still Out!

New research finds that AI can find what sex a child of 9 or 10 is… but the jury still out on gender.

AI Identifies Child’s Sex via Brain Activity

AI can now differentiate the sex of 9 to 10-year-old children based on their brain scans, but its accuracy in identifying gender is debatable. Elvisha Dhamala and her team at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research analysed MRI data from over 4700 children as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development project. They found distinct brain connectivity patterns linked to sex and gender, though the latter was assessed through parental and self-reported measures rather than biological markers.

Distinct Brain Connectivity Patterns

The study revealed that sex-related brain networks were primarily located in the visual cortex, movement control areas, and the limbic system, which manages emotions and memory. In contrast, gender-related networks were more dispersed throughout the cerebral cortex, responsible for higher-order thinking and sensory processing. Despite some overlap, the patterns for sex and gender were largely distinct.

Implications for Research and Medicine

These findings suggest that brain activity varies significantly by sex and gender, impacting conditions like ADHD. The research underscores the need to consider sex and gender separately in biomedical studies. However, some experts, like Ragini Verma from the University of Pennsylvania, argue that the study’s gender-related findings are inconclusive due to low prediction accuracy, highlighting the complexity of neurological gender differences.

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*An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.