Facts about the differences between male and female brains. Male and female brain: differences

It so happened that the gender war has been going on for more than one millennium, only women have been in the role of the vanquished almost all this time. The revered ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle urged men to treat the opposite sex as a vice. Christians accused all women of the fall, and the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, once said that girls develop faster than boys, “because weeds grow faster than grain.” In the 19th century, women finally gained access to university education, but around this time, the phrase "chicken brains" was coined, applied exclusively to the weaker sex. It would seem that prejudices regarding the inferiority of the female brain and mental abilities should already disappear in the 21st century, but, alas, this did not happen. And in the summer of 2017, a Google employee became a participant in a scandal with subsequent dismissal, saying that it is more difficult for women to become IT specialists due to biological characteristics.

Scientists have proven that there really is a difference between the male and female brain, but it does not make any gender better or worse.

The result of numerous studies has become an interesting fact: the biological sex does not always determine the gender of the brain. Functions characteristic of a man may predominate in the brain of a woman, and vice versa, a balance may be maintained between typically male or female features.

More doesn't mean better

Size is the first thing that distinguishes the male brain from the female, but not something that representatives of the strong half of humanity should be proud of. A larger volume of gray matter (about 8-13%) is associated with a larger physique of men, but in no way is an indicator of an outstanding mind. The mental abilities of girls do not suffer from a smaller mass of the brain, because their neurons are denser.

The size of some brain areas also differ depending on gender. Areas of the frontal lobe of the brain active during decision making are slightly larger in women. But in the male brain, the parietal part of the cortex and the amygdala are enlarged. What does this mean in practice? Such a structure leads to a female ability to multitask and a male feature to better navigate in space and sense danger. These differences are easily explained by the evolutionary process: mothers had to simultaneously look after the children and run the household, and fathers had to get food by hunting.

Pregnancy affects a woman's brain in a special way. Starting from the third trimester and ending six months after the birth of a child, the organ decreases in size. However, such changes do not make the expectant or nursing mother dumber, just the brain starts to work differently:

• areas responsible for the functioning of the sense organs increase;
• the amygdala becomes larger, which is responsible for fear and anxiety;
• the hypothalamus, which regulates the menstrual cycle, loses its activity.

You can't be silent

We specifically wrote this phrase without punctuation marks. It is one of the differences between male and female brains, namely verbal abilities. It is believed that women talk more than men. However, this does not at all indicate that girls have nothing to do with themselves, except for conversations, just communication for them is an important part of life. The difference between the communicative abilities of boys and girls is laid even in the period of intrauterine development. Testosterone in male fetuses slows the growth of the left hemisphere, which is responsible for verbal skills, which contributes to the development of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for visuospatial functions. That is why women are better at operating with words, and men are better at navigating the terrain.

In the fair sex, the processing of verbal information occurs with the participation of both hemispheres, while in men - with the help of one. Therefore, women recover more easily from speech disorders, for example, as a result of a stroke.

Who said men don't cry? At preschool age, little boys are more prone to tears and screams, because they are simply less able to formulate their thoughts and emotions using words than their peers. They also reveal a lesser tendency to communicate in adolescence, but teenage girls become simply hypersocial. Thus, the female brain responds to the release of stress hormones.

On emotions

It is believed that women are more emotional, and men are balanced and do not show their feelings. However, examples from life do not allow us to consider this an axiom. It is enough just to look at the stands during sports competitions.

There are indeed differences in the emotional sphere between the brains of men and women. This is clearly expressed, for example, in the reaction to stress. The male half of humanity remembers the essence of emotions, and the female half remembers the details. After a difficult event for the psyche, men prefer to be alone. The female brain in a stressful situation activates the system responsible for attachment, so young ladies seek solace from loved ones.

The innate tendency to notice the slightest changes in the emotions and behavior of other people is transformed into the so-called female intuition. Therefore, a girl, even when she is in an unfamiliar company, will most likely determine the relationship of those present with each other: who is whose friend, lover, etc. But a man will correctly read the emotions on the faces only of people of his gender.

The tendency to experience can play a cruel joke on women: according to statistics, ladies are twice as likely to suffer from depression.

Maiden memory

In fact, women's memory differs in duration due to the lobe of the hippocampus, which is less active in men. No wonder they say that a woman forgives insults, but does not forget. However, with age, statistics testify in favor of the opposite sex - the brain of a man resists dementia better. With Alzheimer's disease, a decrease in mental abilities occurs faster in women, and they die from this disease more often. The difference between the male brain and the female brain in this regard is determined by sex hormones. Estrogen levels during menopause decline faster than male testosterone levels.

The vicissitudes of love

No matter how much they talk about matters of the heart, the choice of a partner is the work of the brain. The study, which involved representatives of 37 cultures, proved that the criteria for choosing a life partner have not changed for thousands of years.

For a man, the attractiveness of a partner is determined by the visual system. If he sees clear skin, thick hair, full lips and an hourglass figure, the brain will surely approve the picture with a release of testosterone.

The female brain is arranged differently and reacts not only to appearance, but also calculates personal qualities. Offensive for men, the question about the type of their activity (earnings) is quite correct from the point of view of female nature: for young ladies it is important that the partner can provide for future children. Girls will take an interest in the financial situation of a potential chosen one, even if they are not currently focused on motherhood.

Knowledge is power

Scientists continue to find differences between the brains of men and women. The results of research and experiments are not just interesting information, but also a reason to improve the interaction between the sexes. The difference in the mental and emotional sphere is just a fact that must be accepted as a given and the battle of the sexes must be stopped. Knowledge about the differences in the brain activity of men and women can help in raising children, married life and business relationships. For example, parents will not scold boys for tears, and girls for talkativeness, husbands recognize the presence of female intuition, and company executives will stop preventing employees from moving up the career ladder.

Text: Anastasia Travkina
Illustrations: Dasha Chertanova

The inequality of women and men is often tried to be explained by biology: different rights and opportunities are allegedly associated with differences in the body. There is a lot of talk about "male" and "female" brains in particular - and the prefix "neuro-" has become a new round in the debate about innate differences. It would seem that modern research methods should give an unambiguous answer to the question of whether men and women really think differently, learn differently, solve problems and choose what is important to them in life. Let's see if this is true and how neuroscience data is used to fuel stereotypes.

How it all started

Today, the attempts of American slave owners or Nazi scientists to prove the "inferiority" of a whole group of people with the help of measurements seem wild to us - but some still consider it logical to look for biological arguments in order to show how women are worse than men. The notion that women's thinking is less developed than men's has been the "background" of research for many years.

Scientists who explored the brain in the 19th century could not "look" inside - they had to stop at the outer dimensions. They weighed the brain, measured the ratio of the height and width of the skull. The very first discovery of the Victorian era - the brain of women is smaller than the brain of men - began to be used as evidence of the "inferiority" of women; then they began to talk about the small size of the face and the ratio of the height and width of the skull. None of the assumptions later came true: it turned out that intelligence depends on the size of neither the brain nor the skull.

Two hundred years ago, many believed that women were not capable of science, were not meant for politics and lived by feelings, their main talents were gentleness, meekness, submission and motherhood, while men strive for discoveries, power and control. As philosopher Neil Levy puts it, “On average, female intelligence is best at tasks aimed at creating comfort for other people.”

Education was considered dangerous for women's health. Edward Clark, a professor at Harvard Medical School, argued that due to mental activity in women, the ovaries can atrophy; supposedly it leads to masculinization, sterility, insanity and even death. By the way, a woman, physician Mary Jacobi, refuted Clark's idea.

testosterone and embryos

In 2005, Harvard President Lawrence Summers suggested at a conference on promoting sociocultural and gender diversity in science and engineering that women are naturally less capable of science. Needless to say, that the fact that women scientists were outraged by this statement was tried to be explained by their "sensitivity"?

To justify such a statement, the media, excited by the scandalous speech, recalled the theory of prenatal testosterone. According to her, the release of testosterone in the male embryo at the eighth week of development changes the structure of his brain: it increases the centers responsible for aggression and sexual behavior, and reduces those responsible for communication and emotions. This campaign of androgens on the fetus allegedly creates a “real” man who is adapted for science.

But there are problems with this bold theory. Firstly, the influence of "male" hormones on the brain was studied in rodents, whose brain is very different in complexity from the human brain. In addition, even scientists who look at how testosterone affects fetal rats cannot answer exactly how it changes the behavior of rat pups after birth. Secondly, there is no way to directly measure testosterone in a child's blood. We can guess its level by indirect indicators: by measuring its level in the blood of the mother or in the amniotic fluid, or by comparing the length of the ring and index fingers (it is believed that testosterone in the womb affects this). This means researchers don't yet know for sure how much of their measurements are related to fetal hormones, which can affect the brain.

Of course, this is not to say that hormones do not affect the brain in any way - but so far we do not know exactly how. Moreover, it is impossible to talk about what kind of place people
with or without testosterone should occupy in society

Thirdly, the only way to test how testosterone influences children's behavior, and at the same time exclude the influence of gender stereotypes in the environment, is to conduct studies on infants up to a few days old. By themselves, such tests are very difficult to organize. For example, they conducted such an experiment: boys and girls were allowed to look at the face of the scientist who conducted the experiment, and the typewriter. It turned out that boys looked at the typewriter longer than girls (51% versus 41%), and girls - at the face (49% versus 46%). At the same time, the experiment was not carried out quite correctly: the experimenters knew the sex of the children in advance, they were not convinced that all the babies were in the same fixed position and that there was the same distance from each of them to the object. Nevertheless, the experimenters said that girls are born with an innate interest in faces, and boys in moving objects.

Of course, this is not to say that hormones do not affect the brain in any way - but so far we do not know exactly how. Moreover, it is impossible to talk about what place people with or without testosterone should occupy in society.

"Creative"
and "rational" hemispheres

You have probably heard the myth that only one of its hemispheres is responsible for some abilities of the brain: for example, the right hemisphere is responsible for creativity and intuition, and the left is responsible for logic and consistency. In fact, the asymmetry of the brain concerns only low-level "technical" processes, including the control of the senses (for example, the information of the left visual angle of the eye is processed by the right hemisphere, and so on). It cannot be said that men use the left hemisphere of the brain more for speech (and therefore they can express their thoughts clearly), while women use the right hemisphere (and therefore they talk about feelings). If this were the case, then in men, problems with speech would arise exclusively when the left hemisphere is damaged, and in women - the right hemisphere, but this does not happen. It turned out that the location of the "speech" and "spatial" zones of the hemispheres varies for many reasons, including those not related to gender.

What scientists have indeed found are differences in brain connectivity between men and women. In the brain of men, there are more connections within the hemispheres, and in the brain of women - interhemispheric. True, it has not yet been possible to prove that these features are related to behavior and abilities. It has been observed that the mode of communication in the hemispheres depends on the size of the brain: the larger it is, the more hemispheric connections it has, regardless of the sex of the host. At the same time, the size of the brain is proportional to the body, so people with a smaller body have a smaller brain and more interhemispheric connections.

It is impossible to conclude from these features that men are better suited for mathematics and spatial tasks, and women for speech tasks and intuition. Interestingly, researchers of mathematically gifted adolescents argue that it is precisely the greater connection between the hemispheres (ironically more common in women) that gives math abilities.

Spatial
and speech abilities

Often those who seek to prove the difference between men and women are guided by what seems obvious to them from life experience: women make fewer discoveries, are less represented in science, listen more to others, and more often mess with children. Something like this in the 18th century proved the failure of the female intellect: women did not show talent in the sciences, which they were simply forbidden to do.

In order to prove these "patterns" today, spatial tests for the rotation of three-dimensional figures are often used: it is believed that men do it better. This view has been well researched by social psychologists. It turned out that if, before the test, the subjects were told that it would determine their abilities in engineering and aircraft construction (or that men were better at it), then women showed lower results. If you say that skills in crocheting and other needlework are tested (or say that women pass the tests better), then women do better.

This effect is called "stereotype threat". Both men and women are subject to "intuitive" notions that are not so easy to dismiss, especially if they are expressed by authorities: scientists and opinion leaders. It is interesting that other information can also influence the passing of tests, the manifestation of leadership qualities and ambitions: for example, biographies of women leaders, scientific articles on women's abilities in mathematics and spatial thinking significantly increase the results of girls.

Toys, children and primates

A few years ago, anthropologists' observations of a tribe of wild chimpanzees shocked everyone: scientists discovered that young females coddled with firebrands like with a doll. This study was used as an argument in favor of the fact that the main role of a woman is motherhood. But the human woman is still not exactly a female chimpanzee. To prove (or disprove) the propensity of the cubs of higher primates and humans to stereotypical activities from an early age, it is necessary to conduct large-scale experiments with both.

The results of such experiments on monkeys have been inconsistent. The chimpanzees were offered a "boyish" car and ball, a "girly" doll and saucepan, and a "neutral" picture book and plush dog. Males played with all the toys in the same way, while females spent more time on “girls” toys. True, there is a serious problem here: human things have a different meaning for animals. When the same toys were broken down into other categories - animate and inanimate - the difference between the preferences of females and males disappeared.

Often, research data that does not reveal differences between men and women are ignored - but studies that confirm the difference are published and reprinted by the media and bloggers.

In experiments on children, unambiguous conclusions are also not obtained. Trains, cars and tools are considered "boyish" toys, dishes, a baby bottle or a cradle are considered "girlish" toys. On average, it can be shown that boys spend more time playing with cars, and girls with bottles. Gender-neutral toys such as puzzles, pyramids, stuffed animals, both spend the same amount of time. Other researchers believe that soft toys are not gender neutral, but are intended for girls, and prove that girls spend more time with them.

Just like with monkeys, experiments with children can become a "self-fulfilling prophecy", and after them many questions remain. What exactly attracts kids in toys: color, temperature and texture, sounds, strength, smell? What will a boy be more willing to play with - with a fire truck without wheels or with Barbie on a pink car? What properties of toys are attractive to female and male primates, and is it possible, knowing them, to design such toys that would be interesting only to one sex?

So is there a difference

Neuroscience is a group of new sciences at an early stage of development. Our technique is still imperfect, there is still very little information about the brain - and many discoveries about a person are yet to come. There are recommendations for neurostudies, they suggest taking into account not only the sex of the subjects, but also their age, origin, social status, and so on. This requirement takes into account - the ability of the brain to change under the influence of experience throughout life. If we get data on differences in brain function in different people, we need to understand whether they appeared from birth or through experience. Stereotypes are also reinforced by what information reaches a wide audience: often the data of many studies that do not reveal differences between men and women are ignored - but studies confirming the difference between women and men are published and reprinted by the media and bloggers.

There are no areas in the brain that are responsible for talent for mathematics, writing, empathy, or culinary abilities: it is a “mosaic”, involving many areas, which can solve the same problem in different ways. “Intuitive” conclusions may turn out to be a stereotype; experiments should be correctly reproduced in different laboratories and give the same result.

Of course, one cannot say that biological differences between the sexes do not exist at all. Research can, for example, help to understand features such as autism, which is more often diagnosed in boys. The difference must be taken into account in the experiments themselves. Even for cellular studies, it is now proposed to use cells taken from both men and women, since sex-determining chromosomes encode up to 5% of our genome and affect the reactions of the cell.

At the same time, “difference” does not mean “opposite” at all, scientists suggest talking about the “gender effect”: humanity is a single species with many variations in the structure of the brain. "Male" and "female" brains are a myth, and the existing differences are no reason to believe that some brains are "better" than others.

Differences between the sexes and the discrimination associated with this is a topic that is especially acute in the modern world. Whether the brain of a man and a woman differs, whether this affects behavior and intelligence is a question of concern to many.

Considering the question of how the male and female brains differ, the initial concept of sex should be clarified.

There are two terms:

1. sex - determined by biology and anatomy, encoded in DNA;
2. gender, which is determined by genetics, anatomy and behavioral traits.

Determining the difference between the male brain and the female brain begins only after specifying the point of view from which we consider it. Gender differences determine the architecture and functions, it is much more difficult with the concept of gender (sex change does not mean a change in the structure of an organ).

Genes are everything

The first differences in the structure of the organ are laid at the level of embryo formation. The combination of XY chromosomes determines the development of the human embryo-boy, the XX variant predetermines the manifestation of the girl.

The X chromosome contains 1500 genes responsible for human development. The male body uses all the genes of the maternal chromosome - he has no choice. The female, who has two X chromosomes at her disposal, acts selectively, using the genes from both, and her choice occurs at random. Girls obviously get at their disposal 2 times more genetic material than boys.

Most of these one and a half thousand genes determine the formation and activity of the organ. Research conducted at the beginning of this century by US scientists determined that they predetermine the process of producing a protein responsible for the architecture of the brain and determine: thinking; speech skills; type of social behavior; intelligence.

Genes make molecules to perform the duties of the cells where they are contained. Brain - created from cells that experience the action of sex chromosomes, under their influence a type is formed. The female brain differs from the male brain in the thickness of the areas responsible for making decisions (the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex), the structure of the limbic zone, which is responsible for cognition and emotions. There is a significant difference in the structure of the amygdala, which is responsible for the emergence and storage of emotions. In men, it is much larger, the connection of the tonsils in the female brain is determined with the left hemisphere, in gentlemen, the opposite is true.

The science

Scientists have conducted more than 1,000 brain scans to confirm that there is a clear difference between male and female brains.

Neural circuit maps have shown that, on average, the female brain has many connections between the left and right hemispheres. At the same time, in men, connections are stronger between the anterior and posterior regions of the brain.

This suggests that a man's brain is more attuned to perception and concerted action, and a woman's to social skills and memorization, thanks to which they are better at doing several things at the same time.

Researcher Rajini Verma(Ragini Verma) from University of Pennsylvania in the United States said that the results of the study surprised scientists, as they confirm long-established stereotypes.

Differences in the brain of a woman and a man

"The left side of the brain is responsible for logical thinking, and the right side for intuitive thinking. If you need a task that requires both, then women will do it better," the researcher explained.

Connections in the brains of men (upper images) and women (lower images)

The scientists mapped the neural connections in the brains of 428 men and 521 women aged 8 to 22. Neural connections are like a road network along which vehicles move.

The scans showed more connections between the left and right hemispheres in women, and the connections in men were more pronounced in separate hemispheres. The only area where men had more connections between the right and left hemispheres was the cerebellum, which plays an important role in controlling movement. So, if you want to learn how to ski, you must have a developed cerebellum.

The difference between the brains of males and females was not as significant until age 13, but became more pronounced between 14 and 7 years of age.

Differences between a man and a woman

Although men and women are from the same planet, there are many differences between them.

Men vs Women: Our Key Physical Differences Explained

brain size

Men's brains are about 10 percent larger than women's. Even though it gives more productivity, it doesn't make men smarter. Scientists believe that men's brains have grown larger to accommodate greater body mass and muscle mass.

Relations

Women have better communication skills and emotional intelligence than men. Women are group oriented and seek solutions by talking through the problem. Men have a harder time picking up emotional cues if they are not clearly labeled, which creates communication problems between the sexes.

Math skills

The inferior parietal lobe, which controls numerical functions, is larger in men than in women. As a rule, men are better at math problems.

Stress

In a stressful situation, men resort to "fight or flight" tactics, while women prefer "care or friendship."

Language

Women tend to do better with language skills, as both areas of the brain responsible for language are larger in women.

Emotions

Women are better at understanding feelings and expressing emotions. Because of this, they better connect with others, but on the other hand, suffer from depression more often.

Spatial perception

Men have a better spatial orientation, and women find it much more difficult to scroll through an object in their mind.

Women often complain that men do not understand them. Representatives of the stronger sex often make similar claims. Both of them usually consider the partner’s not good enough attitude as the reason. According to experts, this is not the reason at all, but that the brain of a man and the brain of a woman work so differently that difficulties arise by themselves.

Today we will tell the reader about the most important of these differences.

Source: depositphotos.com

Dimensions and neural connections of the brain

The male brain is on average 10% heavier than the female. Scientists argue that this does not give any advantages in the intellectual sense: the relative increase in the body corresponds to the need to control a more massive body.

Differences in the arrangement of neural connections in the brains of men and women are much more significant. The fair sex is dominated by cross connections, that is, those that connect the right (responsible for logical thinking) and the left (responsible for intuition) hemispheres. Therefore, women do not experience any particular problems in solving problems for which it is necessary to use both flair and a cold mind. The male brain is dominated by longitudinal connections connecting the anterior and posterior cortex. The exception is the cerebellar zone: in this place, the connections between the hemispheres in men are very well developed, which explains the ability of the stronger sex to easily learn complex physical actions and achieve great success in matters requiring a high degree of control over their bodies.

In men, the lower parietal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for the ability to do mathematics, is better developed, and in women, the zones of both hemispheres, which determine the ability to perceive the features of the language and use colloquial speech, are better developed.

Age-related changes in the brain

At an early age, the difference between a boy's brain and a girl's is minimal; differences begin to appear between the ages of 14 and 17 and increase with age.

As the body ages, the human brain "shrinks", losing part of its volume. In men and women, this process proceeds with significant differences. Thus, in the representatives of the stronger sex, the frontal and temporal lobes decrease most rapidly, the function of which is to control cognitive abilities, emotions and personal characteristics. In women, the parietal lobe and the hippocampal region, which are responsible for spatial perception, vision, speech and memory, “dry out” faster. In general, in men, the decrease in brain volume begins earlier than in their peers. Scientists attribute this feature to the protective effect of estrogen on the brain. The most active decrease in the size of the brain in women occurs at the age of menopause, when the production of sex hormones decreases sharply.

In addition, the brain of a woman and the brain of a man are subject to different degrees of neurodegenerative changes: women are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, while men are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease.

Perception of signals from the senses

Women's hearing is sharper and thinner than men's, and the point here is not in the hearing aid as such: the female brain is able to perceive sounds more clearly, to highlight the smallest intonations. Similarly, men lose out to their girlfriends in terms of detailing tactile sensations.

Similar differences in visual acuity have not been established, but there is a significant difference in the perception of visual signals: a man usually sees the whole picture better, and a woman fixes attention on details.

Logic and emotions

Women, on average, have a better memory than men, a larger vocabulary and higher speech activity. In addition, the fair sex has better developed emotional aspects of thinking. But men are able to more sensibly assess the surrounding reality, without complicating events with their anxieties, suspicions and subjective approach.

In any circumstances, a man pays attention to the quantitative, factual side of the issue, and a woman - to the details and emotional coloring of events. For example, when driving in a car through an unfamiliar city, the husband remembers the time intervals spent on certain parts of the road, and his wife remembers various objects that can serve as landmarks (buildings, signs, etc.). Even the representatives of the sexes show a sense of humor in different ways: a man is interested in the “salt” of a joke, and a woman likes the story itself more, gradually revealing the meaning of a funny situation.

Behavioral and social differences

Men and women not only feel and think, but also behave differently. The fair sex is by nature contact, prone to establishing trusting relationships. Women are considered the best organizers, able to unobtrusively bring people together to solve a common problem. Men are rather “loners”, more adapted to competition, ambitious and aggressive. In a conflict situation, a woman prefers to solve the problem through negotiations, and a man prefers to aggravate the conflict.

The female tendency to some dispersion of attention to details and details also has a positive side: any representative of the weaker sex easily combines several streams of information and is able to do several things at the same time. The male way of thinking involves complete focus on a particular topic, and the transition from one thing to another requires some effort and time.

Knowing the features of the structure of the brain of men and the brain of women is very useful. In fact, this is the easiest way to understand each other and stop conflicting over trifles. Remembering how the other person differs from you, you can become his support, and save yourself from far-fetched grievances and disappointments. Take care of each other and be happy!

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