You know that ol' myth that men are "more visual" and get turned on more easily than women do?

Well, a large new meta-analysis of dozens of studies on the theory just called BS.

The paper, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, analyzed 61 past scientific studies that in total collected data on nearly 2,000 adults of different sexual orientations. Each study conducted virtually the exact same experiment: They showed men and women a series of erotic images and videos while their brains were hooked up to an fMRI machine. These neuroimaging scans showed the various regions of the brain that were activated in response to the visual stimuli, including the "insula, middle and inferior occipital and fusiform gyrus, amygdala, caudate, claustrum, globus pallidus, pulvinar, and substantia nigra." The researchers referred to this as the "arousal network."

The biggest factor that affected how much of a person's brain got activated? The particular type of sexual content they viewed. The least predictive factor? Gender.

"Following a thorough statistical review of all significant neuroimaging studies, we offer strong quantitative evidence that the neuronal response to visual sexual stimuli, contrary to the widely accepted view, is independent of biological sex," the researchers write. "Our analysis demonstrates that there is no functional dimorphism in response to visual sexual stimuli between men and women."

Just for good measure, the researchers decided to specifically analyze two particular regions of the brain: gray matter volume in the right insula and the anterior cingulate gyrus, two areas that past research has shown are associated with sexual desire in women. The researchers analyzed another 36 studies of men's and women's brains (in nonsexual contexts) and found 80% of those studies identified no differences between men's and women's insula and anterior cingulate brain regions.