Gender

Recent articles

Illustrated collage of women doing scientific tasks: looking at brain slices, pouring a solution into a beaker and looking into a microscope.

How eight initiatives are tackling neuroscience’s gender gap

In honor of today’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, The Transmitter spoke with some of the women working to bolster their ranks in the field through storytelling podcasts, speaker repositories, social media networks and other community-based advocacy projects.

By Paige Miranda
11 February 2025 | 2 min read
Abstract illustration of a feminine face in structural flux.

Revisiting sex and gender in the brain

To conduct scientifically accurate and socially responsible research, it is useful to think of “sex” as a complex, multifactorial and context-dependent variable.

By Marija Kundakovic
28 January 2025 | 8 min read
Research image highlighting different brain regions.

X marks the spot in search for autism variants

Genetic variants on the X chromosome, including those in the gene DDX53, contribute to autism’s gender imbalance, two new studies suggest.

By Holly Barker
16 January 2025 | 6 min read
Four microphones on a table with speech bubbles above them.

The Transmitter’s favorite podcasts of 2024

Our picks include a deep dive into dopamine, the role of PKMzeta in memory, and studying the stomatogastric ganglion.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 1 min read
Illustration of men’s and women’s faces.

Males and females show different patterns of risk for brain-based conditions. Ignoring these differences does us all a disservice.

Although studying sex differences in the brain is complex, technically awkward and socioculturally loaded, it is absolutely essential.

By Armin Raznahan
9 December 2024 | 9 min listen
Human X and Y chromosomes.

Extra Y chromosomes are linked to autism

Data from people with more or fewer than two sex chromosomes could help answer questions around genetic protection and vulnerability.

By Grace Huckins
5 December 2024 | 5 min read
Illustrated portrait of Catherine Dulac.

Male and female brains, Proust, and Catherine Dulac

The 2021 Breakthrough Prize winner explains how reading widely shaped her worldview, and discusses the vomeronasal organ.

By Brady Huggett
1 August 2024 | 81 min listen
Illustration of X and Y chromosomes against a psychedelic, checkered pattern.

Accounting for a mosaic of sex differences: Q&A with Nicola Grissom

Breaking the binary view of sex traits can enable researchers to represent the broader complexity of behavior and cognition.

By Olivia Gieger
10 July 2024 | 7 min read
A child uses a tablet device

New tablet-based tools to spot autism draw excitement — and questions

Handheld devices promise to bring autism detection home, but many researchers urge caution.

By Charles Q. Choi
4 January 2024 | 8 min read
A person stands in front of a neatly organized dresser drawer.

Teasing apart insistence on sameness with Mirko Uljarević

The hallmark autism trait has multiple facets, Uljarević and his colleagues have found.

By Lauren Schenkman
30 October 2023 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

A disembodied hand holds a stamp over a messy stack of papers.

Exclusive: Layoffs revoked at U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

After more than a month of uncertainty, 30 previously purged employees at the institute no longer face termination.

By Angie Voyles Askham, Sydney Wyatt
21 May 2025 | 3 min read

John Beggs unpacks the critical brain hypothesis

Beggs outlines why and how brains operate at criticality, a sweet spot between order and chaos.

By Paul Middlebrooks
21 May 2025 | 94 min listen
Photograph of the BRIDGE team and students visiting a laboratory.

Sharing Africa’s brain data: Q&A with Amadi Ihunwo

These data are “virtually mandatory” to advance neuroscience, says Ihunwo, a co-investigator of the Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange (BRIDGE) initiative, which seeks to develop a global framework for sharing, using and protecting neuroscience data.

By Lauren Schenkman
20 May 2025 | 6 min read