'Let's just study males and keep it simple': How excluding female animals from research held neuroscience back, and could do so again

An edited photo of a white lab mouse against a pink and blue gradient background.

Actions taken by the Trump administration have spurred changes at America's major science agencies — and if worst comes to worst, these shifts may jeopardize our understanding of how the brain works and how to treat neurological conditions, experts told Live Science.

For years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has upheld a policy that requires scientists who work with vertebrate animals to consider "sex as a biological variable." To earn grants, researchers must explain how their study designs account for sex, such that any differences between the sexes will be made apparent. Researchers must provide strong scientific justification to include only one sex in a study.