This is your brain on estrogen. Or testosterone.
According to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reported by HealthDay, the differences between men and women may be hard-wired into their brains.
The study, one of the biggest of its kind, found that men have more neural connectivity within each hemisphere of the brain, while women have more connectivity between the two hemispheres. Generally speaking, this means:
Men are better at:
- learning and performing a single task at hand (i.e. doing one thing at a time … amateurs)
- spatial processing (i.e. making sense of the 24-page directions for the kids’ swing set, perhaps?)
- sensiormotor speed (i.e. “Catch!”)
Women are better at:
- face memory (i.e. “That’s Dave Smith, from your office, dear.”)
- attention (i.e. listening to you past the verb and well into the thought.)
- intuition (i.e. That’s why there’s no phrase called “men’s intuition.”)
Men’s brains tend to use the facts only to make a decision, while women add emotional assessment to their processing.
Ragini Verma, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Guardian, “I was surprised that it matched a lot of the stereotypes that we think we have in our heads.”
Maybe we didn’t need a study that confirms that women are better at remembering things and men are generally good at sports, but here we are again. It may, however, help shed light on gender-related neurological disorders.
Other insights from the study (also, from circa 1962):
- Men tend to be better drivers.
- Women have more friends.
Naturally, for every rule, there’s an exception, and your brains may vary.
