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by lsy
725 days ago
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This is a great example of the type of question-begging and junk science "deep learning models" enable. The methodology is to take time series MRI of hundreds of regions of the brain and, labeling each data point as "male" or "female", train a model to differentiate between the two, then pick out the most determinative bits. The issue, of course, is that you are searching for what you want to find. With so much data, of course there is going to be some feature that has maximal differentiating power, so it's totally unsurprising to see a result showing maximal differentiation, since that was what the model was being trained for. However, nothing in this points towards any intelligent conclusion… the highest differentiating region is called "R DLPFC, Subdivision A9l", with "R DLPFC, Subdivision A9/46d" coming close behind. No doubt though this will be passed around as evidence that gender disparities in professional fields and economic outcomes are biologically determined. |
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> But “different” doesn’t necessarily imply “better.” As I stressed in the second edition of my book Why Gender Matters, apples and oranges are different. That doesn’t mean apples are better than oranges. Men and women are turning out to be different, more different than we may have imagined. That doesn’t mean that women are better than men, or vice versa. But it does suggest that if we ignore the differences, we may disadvantage both women and men.
In my experience, men and women have different ways of approaching problems. Given all of the other things that go along for the ride in male vs female bodies, it's not at all surprising to me that brains would be different between the two genders as well.
Why is it such a problem to acknowledge difference? People are different from each other and have strengths and weaknesses that don't overlap. vive la différence!