A Tale of Two Brains

FOOD FOR THOUGHT…

(Do not miss the link at the end of this post!)

Men’s Brains | Women’s Brains – How different are they really?

There’s a fair amount of research that’s been done lately on how the brains of men and women differ. Although one would be hard pressed to tell the difference just by looking at them, scientists have found some distinct differences in how they are wired and how they impact our thinking.

Here are some of the differences research has uncovered…

• Men’s brains are a little larger than women’s, taking into account the general difference in size between sexes. But don’t let this go to your heads, guys. Einstein’s brain was about 10% smaller than that average human brain.

• Men have more connections within each hemisphere (left & right); women have more connections between. “The male’s brain activity is more tightly coordinated within local brain regions”, while a female’s shows strongly coordinated activity between the left (analytical) and right (creative/intuitive) brain.

• Men have more gray matter (neural tissue); women have more white matter (neural connections). According to Gregory Jantz, Ph.D. and mental health practitioner, this may be the reason men have more tunnel vision when they are doing or focused on something (like that football game or golf tournament?) and are insensitive to their surroundings.

• Female brains have a larger memory center (hippocampus) and a more neural connections to sensory and emotive processes of the brain, so they retain stronger memories of emotional events.

• Females tend to have verbal centers on both sides of their brain; male tend to have just one – on the left. No explanation needed.

• Women and men naturally prefer different toys. In studies of young rhesus monkeys, males “strongly preferred toys with wheels over plush toys, whereas females found plush toys more likeble.” Proof that this isn’t a cultural thing.

• Men’s and Women’s brains appear to age differently. Men appear to be more susceptible to Parkinson’s disease and at a younger age; women are affected more rapidly and adversely by Alzheimer’s. Moreover, overall gray matter diminishes at a faster rate in men than it does in women.

While the research clearly indicates that men and women are wired differently, there’s still much to learn and scientists will continue to explore why and how the sexes think and how brain physiology plays into this.

Here is the best explanation I’ve seen so far. It explains it in a way that science simply can’t:

Don’t miss this!

“A Tale of Two Brains”

PS – Laughter is good for you!

What to connect? email me at elaine@elainepauly.com