Sex beyond the genitalia: the human brain mosaic
Open accessAbstract
Whereas a categorical difference in the genitals has always been acknowledged, the question of how far these categories extend into human biology is still not resolved. Documented sex/gender differences in the brain are often taken as support of a sexually dimorphic view of human brains ("female brain" or "male brain"). However, such a distinction would be possible only if sex/gender differences in brain features were highly dimorphic (i.e., little overlap between the forms of these features in males and females) and internally consistent (i.e., a brain has only "male" or only "female" features). Here, analysis of MRIs of more than 1,400 human brains from four datasets reveals extensive overlap between the distributions of females and males for all gray matter, white matter, and connections assessed. Moreover, analyses of internal consistency reveal that brains with features that are consistently at one end of the "maleness-femaleness" continuum are rare. Rather, most brains are comprised of unique "mosaics" of features, some more common in females compared with males, some more common in males compared with females, and some common in both females and males. Our findings are robust across sample, age, type of MRI, and method of analysis. These findings are corroborated by a similar analysis of personality traits, attitudes, interests, and behaviors of more than 5,500 individuals, which reveals that internal consistency is extremely rare. Our study demonstrates that, although there are sex/gender differences in the brain, human brains do not belong to one of two distinct categories: male brain/female brain.
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Despite many reported sex/gender differences in animal and human brains, these are subject to considerable heterogeneity, so the human brain is not male or female but best described as a mosaic of relative masculinity and femininity.
“In spite of many reported sex/gender differences in both animal and human brains, these are subject to considerable heterogeneity, even within regions, so that the human brain is not male or female, but best described as a mosaic of relative masculinity and femininity (57).”
From Where Sex Meets Gender: How Sex and Gender Come Together to Cause Sex Differences in Mental Illness (2022) · cites this paper as [57]
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“In spite of many reported sex/gender differences in both animal and human brains, these are subject to considerable heterogeneity, even within regions, so that the human brain is not male or female, but best described as a mosaic of relative masculinity and femininity (57).”
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- Authors
- Joel, D., Berman, Z., Tavor, I., Wexler, N., Gaber, O., Stein, Y., Shefi, N., Pool, J., Urchs, S., Margulies, D. S., Liem, F., Hänggi, J., Jäncke, L., & Assaf, Y.
- Affiliations
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (DE)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2015-11-30
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 50
- Pages
- 15468-15473
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4687544
- OpenAlex
- W2185640743
- Cited by
- 684
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 83 · 2020: 131 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 53 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 53.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Swiss National Science Foundation (320030-120661, 320030B-138668, 20030B-138668, 4-62341-05)
- European Union FET Integrated Project PRESENCCIA (27731)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Sex and Gender in Healthcare
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities
- Keywords
- sex differences in brain, brain sexual dimorphism, gray matter, white matter, brain connectivity, sex and gender differences, personality traits
- MeSH terms
- Behavior, Brain, Female, Genitalia, Humans, Male, Organ Size, Sex Characteristics, Gray Matter
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