Infographic: Searching for the Neural Basis of Gender

Brain studies have yielded a mixed picture of the neural similarities and differences between people of different genders.

Shawna Williams

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S ince the 1990s, researchers have investigated various features of the brains of transgender people. The results have yielded a mixed picture of the neural mechanisms that may underlie what’s known as gender dysphoria.

Some studies, for example, have identified aspects of transgender brains that more closely match those of people of the same gender or fall in between typical cisgender women and men, supporting the idea that there is a mismatch between the development of gender in the brain and the body ?. But others have found features of the brains of transgender individuals that are more similar to those of people who share their sex assigned at birth, or differ from cisgender people of both sexes ?.

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate and science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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