title: A half-truth is a whole lie: on the necessity of investigating sex influences on the brain.
abstract: Sex influences are proving to be extremely widespread on brain function, including the human brain. Ample evidence now proves that the sex of subjects can influence, ever reverse, findings, hence conclusions, at all levels of brain science, down to the molecular level, often in completely unanticipated ways. Thus the still-prominent assumption that sex influences may be safely ignored by neurobiologists is invalid and must be abandoned. The failure to properly consider the issue fills the literature with conclusions tenuous at best, false at worst. The continuing, widespread resistance to investigating sex influences among brain scientists, a resistance largely rooted in deeply entrenched biases against the topic, is becoming increasingly scientifically indefensible and strongly retards progress in our field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-3800, USA. lfcahill@uci.edu
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cahill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D051236:Receptors, Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide / Q000378:metabolism; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D051236:Receptors, Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide