ReviewNature neuroscience2021
Considering sex as a biological variable will require a global shift in science culture.
Review in Nature neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 248 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
248 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 438 citations in OpenAlex.
- Challenges and Opportunities in Exploring Non-Motor Symptoms in 6-Hydroxydopamine Models of Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Pooled it
- Accelerated Aging after Traumatic Brain Injury: An ENIGMA Multi-Cohort Mega-Analysis.Annals of neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Sex differences in cardiovascular disease and dysregulation in Down syndrome.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2023Pooled it
- Sex differences in pharmacological interventions and their effects on lifespan and healthspan outcomes: a systematic review.Frontiers in aging · 2023Pooled it
- Demographic reporting across a decade of neuroimaging: a systematic review.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of dopamine D2-like receptor blockade on human motor performance and skill acquisition.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Hormonal mechanisms of women's risk in the face of traumatic stress.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Trial
- Sex Differences Between Female and Male Individuals in Antipsychotic Efficacy and Adverse Effects in the Treatment of Schizophrenia.CNS drugs · 2024Trial
- Gero-Immunology: The critical role of aging when defining immune phenotypes.Current opinion in biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Sex-dependent Hippocampal Astrocytic Signaling and Synaptic Alterations Associated With Behavioral Impairments in Intracerebroventricular Streptozotocin-treated Rats.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Real-world pharmacovigilance signals of antibody-drug conjugates: reporting patterns by payload, linker, target, and sex in FAERS.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Synaptic Adaptations in the Amygdala During Alprazolam Withdrawal: Insights from a Female Rat Model of Benzodiazepine Withdrawal.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Characterization of the Spinal Cord of the Annual Fish Garcialebias charrua: Morphology, Cell Proliferation, and NADPH-Diaphorase Activity.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- Adolescent obesity induces sex-specific alterations of action control.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Review
- Sex-stratified insights into the genetics of brain volumes in late adulthood.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Sodium valproate and gabapentin reduce the seizure-like behavior induced by pentylenetetrazol and mechanical stress in Drosophila melanogaster: sex influence on behavioral responses.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Nucleus accumbens medial shell D1 and D2 medium spiny neurons signal the valence of conditioned stimuli in a sex-dependent manner.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in Depression: Adult Cytogenesis as Potential Target for Precision Psychiatry.Cells · 2026Review
- These Boots Are Made for Walking: Sex-Specific Physiological and Metabolomic Strategies Reflect Male-Skewed Vulnerability to Ocean Warming in a Keystone Amphipod.Global change biology · 2026Article
188 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
For over half a century, male rodents have been the default model organism in preclinical neuroscience research, a convention that has likely contributed to higher rates of misdiagnosis and adverse side effects from drug treatment in women. Studying both sexes could help to rectify these public health problems, but incentive structures in publishing and career advancement deter many researchers from doing so. Moreover, funding agency directives to include male and female animals and human participants in grant proposals lack mechanisms to hold recipients accountable. In this Perspective, we highlight areas of behavioral, cellular and systems neuroscience in which fundamental sex differences have been identified, demonstrating that truly rigorous science must include males and females. We call for a cultural and structural change in how we conduct research and evaluate scientific progress, realigning our professional reward systems and experimental standards to produce a more equitable, representative and therefore translational body of knowledge.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.