@article {333792,
	title = {Robust but independent sex differences in human brain function, structure, and behavior},
	journal = {Nature Communications},
	year = {2026},
	month = {2026/05/21},
	abstract = {<p><meta charset="UTF-8" />The neurobiological accompaniments of well-established sex differences in human behavior and disease remain unclear \&mdash; in part due to a lack of large, diverse functional neuroimaging studies. We address this gap using over 700\&thinsp;h of fMRI data across seven tasks from 978 individuals with extensive structural and behavioral measures. We find that sex differences in task-activation are widespread (85\% of cortex)\&nbsp;and reproducible,\&nbsp; largely\&nbsp;task-specific, of small to moderate effect size,\&nbsp;and unaligned with brain volume differences. While machine learning can classify sex from brain activation, volume, or behavior, these data types provide orthogonal information. Brain-wide association studies reveal that links between brain activation and behavior are highly conserved between sexes. The few subtle sex differences in brain-behavior linkage that do exist are not preferentially localized to sex-biased behaviors. Our findings clarify the nature of sex differences in human brain function and their links with neuroanatomy and behavior, providing a useful foundation for future research.</p>
},
	isbn = {2041-1723},
	doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73262-2},
	url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73262-2},
	author = {Liu, Siyuan and Mahony, Bridget W. and Whitman, Ethan T. and Gotts, Stephen J. and Moraczewski, Dustin and Thomas, Adam and Martin, Alex and Raznahan, Armin}
}
