Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: contribute to reducing potential biases in the research questions, objects of study, and interpretations of neuroscientific evidence. Differences in neurocognitive and neurophysiological processing between women and men, highlighted by some contributions to this Research Topic, may also be embedded in social and cultural differences. Greater diversity among researchers may broaden perspectives in neuroscience and counterbalance biases arising from predominantly male authorship. Thus, this special issue contributes in two complementary directions: presenting scientific contributions led by women and highlighting sex-and gender-related differences in neurocognitive and neurophysiological processes, mediated or not by social aspects. Regarding the first, research led by women in this Research Topic places particular emphasis on the social dimensions of human neuroscience. In this sense, empathy was incorporated into the analysis of individual differences in brain responses to robot and human pain (Chin et al., 2026). Advancing human-robot interaction research, the authors found prefrontal cortical hemodynamic responses to robot pain equivalent to the ones to human pain. Despite the absence of differences in the measures of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), participants were able to verbally discriminate robot pain faces from neutral ones, as well as from human pain faces. In another study from this special issue, social bondings and social identity were highlighted as important dynamics developed through food culture among primates, as they are in human groups (Roberts and Roberts, 2026). Based on an integrated theoretical model of dietary traditions and primate social complexity, this work provides an evolutionary perspective on how culture integrates biological and social demands.Considering both contributions from this special issue, three studies collectively examine sexand gender-related differences across complementary levels of neurocognitive and neurophysiological analysis: behavioral testing (Çamci et al., 2025), event-related potentials (ERP) (Nanova et al., 2026), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) (Potts et al., 2026). All adopt original approaches, investigating uncommon and innovative objects of study, such as pareidolia, mental rotation, and motor imagery or "visualization", while characterizing the underlying mental processes as a theoretical foundation for interpreting behavioral, ERP, and MEG measures.Çamci and colleagues (2025) investigate gender attribution to ambiguous faces (face pareidolia) in patients receiving emergency medical care. Specifically, a substantial 81% of the pareidolia faces were categorized as male, and this finding was consistent across both male and female patients.Thus, male patients were more likely to perceive ambiguous faces as congruent with their own gender, whereas female patients showed the opposite pattern, with the dominant reference being incongruent with their own gender. Intriguingly, while attributions of male gender dominated in frequency, patients were significantly faster at attributing a female gender (1.44 seconds) to ambiguous pareidolia faces than a male gender (3.25 seconds). This discrepancy invites further investigation of how automatic visual processing interacts with social and cultural expectations in gender attribution in pareidolia.A narrative review led by Plamenka Nanova (2026) examines sex-related differences in mental rotation in young adults. Synthesising event-related potential (ERP) evidence across studies, the review highlights that sex differences in mental rotation, particularly during demanding behavioural 3D tasks, are accompanied by differences in ERP amplitude, latency, global field power, and scalp topography. Nanova further notes that neurophysiological differences may occur even when behavioural performance is comparable, suggesting that accuracy and response time alone may not fully capture sex-related differences in the neurocognitive processes underlying mental rotation.Potts and colleagues (2026) further examine motor imagery in elite female ice hockey players using exclusively non-behavioral measures in a MEG study. The authors identified, even at the individual level, a principal hub of neural activity during the imagery condition in a posterior left hemisphere cortical region surrounding the intraparietal sulcus. This initiative calls for further studies that expand the neurocognitive interpretation of MEG results, advancing the characterization of mental processes that occur without equivalent behavioral measures, such as response option or execution time. Gender-specific aspects regarding motor imagery, taking into consideration cultural aspects and previous experience, would also be further investigated.Together, these female-led studies clearly embody the dual mission of this Research Topic: they elevate the visibility of women leading rigorous neuroscientific investigation while simultaneously advancing how sex and gender are conceptualised, measured, and interpreted in modern neuroscience.By amplifying women's perspectives, this Research Topic contributes to a more equitable and broadly informative social neuroscience.
Source: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Authors: Nayara Mota, Anna Ilona Roberts
Language: English
Topic: Sex and Gender in Healthcare
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7223707257