ArticleHuman brain mapping2019
Machine learning of brain gray matter differentiates sex in a large forensic sample.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- The power of many small sex differences in cognition, personality, and interests.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Source-based morphometry analyses yield associations between large-scale structural brain networks and psychopathic traits in incarcerated adolescents.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Sex Categories.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Brain Sex: Differences That Do Not Differentiate.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Incarcerated adolescents scoring high on the Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scale are characterized by impairments within brain regions associated with executive control: A source-based morphometry study.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2025Article
- "Precision Medicine" and the Failed Search for Binary Brain Sex Differences to Address Gender Behavioral Health Disparities.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Review
- The application of artificial intelligence in forensic pathology: a systematic literature review.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Do Sex and Gender Have Separate Identities?Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Review
- Brain age prediction using combined deep convolutional neural network and multi-layer perceptron algorithms.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Classifying sex with volume-matched brain MRI.Neuroimage. Reports · 2023Article
- Insights into Sex and Gender Differences in Brain and Psychopathologies Using Big Data.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Machine learning classification of chronic traumatic brain injury using diffusion tensor imaging and NODDI: A replication and extension study.Neuroimage. Reports · 2023Article
- The sleep EEG envelope is a novel, neuronal firing-based human biomarker.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Sex is predicted by spatial memory multivariate activation patterns.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2022Article
- Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Is it left or is it right? A classification approach for investigating hemispheric differences in low and high dimensionality.Brain structure & function · 2022Article
- Confounds in neuroimaging: A clear case of sex as a confound in brain-based prediction.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Hemodynamic activity in the limbic system predicts reoffending in women.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2022Article
- Patch individual filter layers in CNNs to harness the spatial homogeneity of neuroimaging data.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Classifying handedness with MRI.Neuroimage. Reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Differences between males and females have been extensively documented in biological, psychological, and behavioral domains. Among these, sex differences in the rate and typology of antisocial behavior remains one of the most conspicuous and enduring patterns among humans. However, the nature and extent of sexual dimorphism in the brain among antisocial populations remains mostly unexplored. Here, we seek to understand sex differences in brain structure between incarcerated males and females in a large sample (n = 1,300) using machine learning. We apply source-based morphometry, a contemporary multivariate approach for quantifying gray matter measured with magnetic resonance imaging, and carry these parcellations forward using machine learning to classify sex. Models using components of brain gray matter volume and concentration were able to differentiate between males and females with greater than 93% generalizable accuracy. Highly differentiated components include orbitofrontal and frontopolar regions, proportionally larger in females, and anterior medial temporal regions proportionally larger in males. We also provide a complimentary analysis of a nonforensic healthy control sample and replicate our 93% sex discrimination. These findings demonstrate that the brains of males and females are highly distinguishable. Understanding sex differences in the brain has implications for elucidating variability in the incidence and progression of disease, psychopathology, and differences in psychological traits and behavior. The reliability of these differences confirms the importance of sex as a moderator of individual differences in brain structure and suggests future research should consider sex specific models.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.