(Image credit: Jack Hudson)
You are holding two shrunken human brains, each dripping with formaldehyde. Look at one, then at the other. Can you tell which is female and which is male?
You can't.
Humans have been looking for sex differences in the brain since at least the ancient Greeks, and the search has proven largely futile. That’s partly because the human brain doesn’t come in two distinct shapes, said Dr. Armin Raznahan, chief of the developmental neurogenomics section at the National Institute of Mental Health.
“I don't know of any way to measure the human brain where the distribution of male and female genes doesn't overlap,” Raznahan told Live Science.
However, the question of differences in male and female brains may still matter, as brain diseases and mental disorders manifest differently in the sexes. Experts say understanding how much of these differences are due to biology and how much to the environment could lead to better treatments.
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There are many different brain disorders, both psychiatric and neurological, that occur at different rates and manifest differently in the sexes, says Dr. Yvonne Louie, a clinician-scientist and vice chair of research at NYU Langone. “Understanding the underlying differences can help us better understand how diseases manifest.”
Now, thanks in part to artificial intelligence (AI), scientists are beginning to reliably differentiate between male and female brains using
Sourse: www.livescience.com
