[coldtea]

>I think the person you’re responding to is talking about confounding factors _outside_ the brain scan, like when a model that could identify skin cancer used the presence of a ruler as its most weighted input

Well, those are just "bugs" and the results are then useless.

My point is that results taking into account only the scan (not random correlations with outside factors), would indeed be able to prove differences between M&F brains, without needing to also give a mechanism for it.