Bayesian analysis finds substantial evidence for gender similarities in neural maturity in most of the brain, with fewer than 1% of voxels supporting gender differences¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Bayes factors provided substantial support for gender similarities across most voxels; 0.8% of voxels showed substantial or strong evidence of gender differences, and no cortical regions supported greater neural maturity in boys. → Kersey 2019

Evidence¶

Kersey 2019¶

Kersey, A. J., Csumitta, K. D., & Cantlon, J. F. (2019). Gender similarities in the brain during mathematics development. npj Science of Learning 4:19. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-019-0057-x

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Whole-brain Bayes Factor analysis with a Cauchy prior width of 0.707, complementing the frequentist analyses of the same 104-child fMRI dataset. The article reports that "Less than 1% of voxels (0.8%)" supported gender differences and 23.6% of voxels supported neither hypothesis.

"Less than 1% of voxels (0.8%) showed substantial or strong (B10 > 10) evidence of gender differences (Fig. 1b; 23.6% voxels did not substantially support either similarities or differences in the Bayesian analysis)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause

Related Claims¶

• Math ability predicts neural maturity in the same brain regions for boys and girls, with no gender-by-ability interaction — related
• Whole-brain neural similarity between children is the same for same-gender and different-gender pairs — related
• Boys and girls show statistically equivalent neural maturity throughout the brain during mathematics video viewing — a broader claim this one bears on
• Children engaged number-selective neural responses in the intraparietal sulci during educational videos, and boys and girls did so equally — related
• Within the number processing network, girls and boys show statistical equivalence in neural maturity and no variance differences — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• In one small right posterior parietal region, girls showed greater neural variance than boys at equal mean activation — related