Spets Dylan S, Slotnick Scott D
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, United States.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Boston, United States.
Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Jan;13(1):1-9. doi: 10.1080/17588928.2021.1996343. Epub 2021 Nov 1.
In a discussion paper published in the special issue of , Sex Differences in the Brain, we investigated whether certain experimental parameters contributed to findings in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of sex differences during long-term memory. Experimental parameters included: the number of participants, stimulus type(s), whether or not performance was matched, whether or not sex differences were reported, the type of between-subject statistical test used, and the contrast(s) employed. None of these parameters determined whether or not differences were observed, as all included studies reported sex differences. We also conducted a meta-analysis to determine if there were any brain regions consistently activated to a greater degree in either sex. The meta-analysis identified sex differences (male > female) in the lateral prefrontal cortex, visual processing regions, parahippocampal cortex, and the cerebellum. We received eight commentaries in response to that paper. Commentaries called for an expanded discussion on various topics including the influence of sex hormones, the role of gender (and other social factors), the pros and cons of equating behavioral performance between the sexes, and interpreting group differences in patterns of brain activity. There were some common statistical assumptions discussed in the commentaries regarding the 'file drawer' issue (i.e., the lack of reporting of null results) and effect size. The current paper provides further discussion of the various topics brought up in the commentaries and addresses some statistical misconceptions in the field. Overall, the commentaries echoed a resounding call to include sex as a factor in cognitive neuroscience studies.
在发表于《大脑中的性别差异》特刊的一篇讨论论文中，我们研究了某些实验参数是否对长期记忆期间性别差异的功能磁共振成像研究结果产生影响。实验参数包括：参与者数量、刺激类型、表现是否匹配、是否报告了性别差异、所使用的受试者间统计检验类型以及所采用的对比。这些参数均未决定是否观察到差异，因为所有纳入研究均报告了性别差异。我们还进行了一项荟萃分析，以确定是否存在任何在任一性别中始终被更强烈激活的脑区。荟萃分析确定了在外侧前额叶皮层、视觉处理区域、海马旁皮层和小脑中存在性别差异（男性>女性）。我们收到了八篇针对该论文的评论。评论呼吁对包括性激素的影响、性别（及其他社会因素）的作用、使两性行为表现等同的利弊以及解释脑活动模式中的组间差异等各种主题展开更广泛的讨论。评论中讨论了一些关于“文件抽屉”问题（即未报告无效结果）和效应大小的常见统计假设。本文进一步讨论了评论中提出的各种主题，并解决了该领域的一些统计误解。总体而言，评论强烈呼吁将性别作为认知神经科学研究中的一个因素。
