this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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168
AI Determines Sex of Person From Brain Scans - Neuroscience News (neurosciencenews.com)
submitted 6 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] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Brains change over time. The outcome and interpretations of this study sound like they have more chance of causing harm than good.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

People's heights change over time too. Men and women can nevertheless have different average heights.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yes, but I've heard theories and read studies in the past that suggest the differences in sexuality change over time, also. Like, studies have documented that women can go back and forth from being gay and straight, while men might go gay later in life but never change back. Supposedly there is some mental rewiring that goes on alongside this, however not as something that has been quantifiably measured, only qualitatively observed.

I think this AI processing could be a useful tool in further analysis against this and other hypotheses, but I worry that given the emotionally charged discussions around transgender nature the results will be far too easily misconstrued.

Height is pretty consistent. You grow until adolescence, then maybe you shrink a bit later in life. Men are generally taller than women, but only on average. That doesn't really have anything to do with neurology.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The text of the study says they specifically focused on a segment of the dataset from 20-35 years old to minimuze variation among the sex cohorts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's cool, but that doesn't stop wild misinterpretation of the study and its conclusions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's true of every study ever made, especially in today's media environment.

And every probably done study includes acknowledgments of known shortcomings, most of the ones I've read include suggestions or thoughts about future studies that could be done to account for those known issues.

Media is to blame for most of the misinterpretations, not the studies themselves. It's impossible to create a single, perfect study that can't be misconstrued in some way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I wasn't criticising the study for that so much, aside from the suggestion that their findings have broader implications than they likely do. The article perhaps deserves a little criticism, but yes the media (which the article publisher is a part of), and particularly mass media is the bigger culprit.