ABSTRACT
Sex is clearly an important factor to consider in understanding learning disabilities. However, the provocative question of whether boys are the “weaker sex” can be translated into the very legitimate research question “Why are neurodevelopmental disorders differentially expressed in boys as compared to girls?” The advent of neuroimaging and refinement of imaging procedures enabled visualization and volumetric measurement of brain structure. It is now possible to map patterns of neural activity to behavior and to observe changes in neural structure and function over time. Armed with these tools, we now know that brain development occurs differently in males and females. Sexually dimorphic neural development and its impact on brain structure, function, and neurophysiology appear to contribute to differential cognitive proficiencies among men and women. In this chapter, we examine how sex differences in brain development influence the expression of learning disabilities among boys and girls.
