This new AI tool will detect gender-related differences in brain structure

US researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool which shows the differences in how the brains of men and women are organised at a cellular level. A detailed understanding of how biological sex impacts the brain can help boost diagnostic tools and treatments for multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder, migraines, and other brain issues that work differently and with varying symptoms in men and women. Researchers at New York University-Langone Health used an AI technique called machine learning to analyse thousands of MRI brain scans from 471 men and 560 women. Variations in white matter -- tissue primarily located in the human brain’s innermost layer, which fosters communication between regions -- were found between the genders, revealed the study, published online in the journal Scientific Reports. "Our findings provide a clearer picture of how a living, human brain is structured, which may, in turn, offer new insight into how many psychiatric and neurological disorders develop and why they can present differently in men and women," said neuroradiologist Yvonne Lui, professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.