No such thing as ‘male’ and ‘female’ brains, Israeli study suggests

The Telegraph reports on new research by Tel Aviv University scientists that contradicts the common view that there are “male” and “female” brains.

Just six percent of 1,400 brains scanned by the team showed discernibly “male” or “female” forms.

Daphna Joel, from the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, said: “It is a very popular belief, even among scientists, that brains have a male and female form. What we were interested in is looking at the entire brain.
“Even if there are differences, does it mean brains come in two different forms?”
Their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved taking MRI scans of more than 1,400 brains, focusing on anatomy rather than how brains work.
They analysed brain features like tissue thickness or volume in different parts of the brain. They focused on traits that showed the biggest sex differences, dividing the scores into a predominantly male zone, a predominantly female zone, and an intermediate range.
Researchers found that it was rare for brains to fall into one of these three distinct categories- just six per cent of brains they analysed could be placed in one particular group.

And further:

The researchers also used a similar approach to analyse psychological and behavioural scores from two prior studies that covered more than 5,000 participants, and again they had similar results.
Overall, the results show “human brains do not belong to one of two distinct categories,” male and female, the researchers concluded.

For those eager for some background, Daphna Joel gave a TEDx talk on the subject back in 2012.