TY - JOUR T1 - Investigating the Influence of Biological Sex on the Behavioral and Neural Basis of Face Recognition JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0104-17.2017 SP - ENEURO.0104-17.2017 AU - K. Suzanne Scherf AU - Daniel B. Elbich AU - Natalie V. Motta-Mena Y1 - 2017/04/26 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2017/04/26/ENEURO.0104-17.2017.abstract N2 - There is interest in understanding the influence of biological factors, like sex, on the organization of brain function. We investigated the influence of biological sex on the behavioral and neural basis of face recognition in healthy, young adults. In behavior, there were no sex differences on the male CFMT+ or the female CFMT+ (that we created) and no own-gender bias (OGB) in either group. We evaluated the functional topography of ventral stream organization by measuring the magnitude, functional neural size, and locus of 16 individually defined face-, 2 object-, and 2 place-related regions bilaterally. There were no sex differences in any of these measures of neural function in any of the regions of interest (ROI) or in group level comparisons. These findings reveal that men and women have similar category-selective topographic organization in the ventral visual pathway. Next, we measured activation within the 16 face-processing ROIs specifically during recognition of target male and female faces. There were no sex differences in the magnitude of the neural responses in any face-processing region. Furthermore, there was no OGB in the neural responses of either the male or female participants. Our findings suggest that face recognition behavior, including the OGB, is not inherently sexually dimorphic. Face recognition is an essential skill for navigating human social interactions, which is reflected equally in the behavior and neural architecture of men and women.Significance Statement This research addresses whether there are key differences related to biological sex in the functional organization of the brain. Face processing is one of only a small number of domains in which there is an existing literature suggesting that sex differences in brain function may exist. We provide the most methodologically rigorous test for potential sex differences in face recognition behavior and neural function to date. In so doing, we do not observe such sex differences. We suggest that previous findings could actually reflect group differences in health histories for concussion or emerging psychiatric disorders. Finally, we recommend that research investigating the influence of biological sex become more methodologically rigorous and theory-driven. ER -