Some scientists and public figures have hypothesized that women and men differ in their pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) owing to biological differences in mathematics aptitude. However, little evidence supports such claims. Some studies of children and adults show gender differences in mathematics performance but in those studies it is impossible to disentangle intrinsic, biological differences from sociocultural influences. To investigate the early biology of mathematics and gender, we tested for gender differences in the neural processes of mathematics in young children. We measured 3–10-year-old children’s neural development with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during naturalistic viewing of mathematics education videos. We implemented both frequentist and Bayesian analyses that quantify gender similarities and differences in neural processes. Across all analyses girls and boys showed significant gender similarities in neural functioning, indicating that boys and girls engage the same neural system during mathematics development.

一些科学家和公众人士假设，由于数学能力的生物学差异，男女在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）方面的职业追求有所不同。但是，几乎没有证据支持这种说法。一些对儿童和成人的研究表明，数学表现存在性别差异，但在这些研究中，不可能将内在的，生物学的差异与社会文化的影响区分开。为了研究数学和性别的早期生物学，我们测试了幼儿数学神经过程中的性别差异。我们在自然观看数学教育视频的过程中，通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量了3-10岁儿童的神经发育。我们实施了频度分析和贝叶斯分析，以量化神经过程中的性别相似性和差异。在所有分析中，男孩和女孩在神经功能上都表现出明显的性别相似性，这表明男孩和女孩在数学发展过程中会使用相同的神经系统。