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igger - Stronger - Faster...are there really any differences between female brains and male brains? Differences between the brains of men and women have generated considerable scientific and public interest. If there are differences in the way that men and women behave, then it is reasonable to suppose that their brains have something to do these behavioral differences. Just what are these differences and where in the brain might these differences be located?

For hundreds of years, scientists have searched for differences between the brains of men and women. Early research showing that male brains were larger than female brains was used to "prove" that male brains were superior to female brains. Of course, this "proof" is NOT so simple and straight forward as you will see. Nevertheless, even today, there is plenty of controversy about the differences in the brains of men and women. Not only from an anatomical point of view, but also from a functional point of view - in other words, just what do the dif

Almost all studies show that at birth, a boy's brain is bigger than a girl's brain. At birth, the average brain of boys is between 12-20% larger than that of girls. The head circumference of boys is also larger (2%) than that of gir

And as men age, they tend to lose more tissue from a part of the brain located just behind the forehead that concerns itself with consequences and self-control. Generally speaking, the brain of a female is more interlinked and--if one assumes that a basic requirement of the post is to avoid dividing the faculty into two sweaty mobs--may be better suited for the kind of cautious diplomacy required of a high-profile university leader.

Many bold decrees have been issued. In the 19th century, the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, was considered key to intellectual development

But most studies agree that men's brains are about 10% bigger than women's brains overall. Even when the comparison is adjusted for the fact that men are, on average, 8% taller than women, men's brains are still slightly bigger. But size does not predict intellectual performance, as was once thought. Men and women perform similarly on IQ tests. And most scientists still cannot tell male and female brains apart just by looking at them.

Not all mammals' courtship behaviors are so obviously a product of brain-function differences between the sexes, however. In humans, these more subtle behaviors bear witness to the surprisingly abundant gender-specific differences in the central nervous system (CNS). For example, in men the auditory brainstem response has a longer latency period and smaller amplitude than in women. This may have a profound effect on men's response to auditory stimuli. Other differences in sexual behavior may be indicated by structural distinctions between male and female brains. In the areas of the brain that influence sexual behavior, women are reported to have more gray matter than men in a language-related cortical region, but not in a more visuospatially related cortical region. This indicates that the sexes have structural differences in the cerebral cortex. It also raises the question, are men inherently more responsive to visual sexual stimulation than women and are women intrinsically more responsive to sexual wooing through words?

The Brain Discovering how each gender thinks, acts and feels Understanding the original super computer--the brain--is proving a difficult task even for the species within which it operates.

Understanding the original super computer--the brain--is proving a difficult task even for the species within which it operates.

In one, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the "boys" (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the "girls" (actually boys) as happy and socially engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens. In another study, mothers estimated how steep a slope their 11-month-olds could crawl down. Moms of boys got it right to within one degree; moms of girls underestimated what their daughters could do by nine degrees, even though there are no differences in the motor skills of infant boys and girls. But that prejudice may cause parents to unconsciously limit their daughter's physical activity. How we perceive children-sociable or remote, physically bold or reticent-shapes how we treat them and therefore what experiences we give them. Since life leaves footprints on the very structure and function of the brain, these various experiences produce sex differences in adult behavior and brains-the result not of innate and inborn nature but of nurture.

In a part of the temporal lobe associated with language skills, women's brains contain up to 11% more brain cells than men's brains. This does not necessarily mean that women are smarter than men, but it does show they are different.

Males are faster at solving problems involving some types of spatial perceptions than are women.

Women are two to three time more likely to experience depression than are men.

avioral Endocrinology (Slide Introduction) Evolutionary Psychology and Women. The female brain. Y are males so violent? Listen to the interview here (Pull the slider to about 14 min into the interview). Selected reading from A Natural History of Rape: Biological Basis of Sexual Coercion Excerpts from "Brain Sex". Sex and the Corpus Callosum. Also, check this. Stalking the Wild Taboo: Homosexuality, Birth Order and Evolution "A sex difference in the brain and its relation to transsexuality" Read the Nature article. Find the Time review here. Listen to the National Public Radio Interview. "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men" Read Simon Levay's August 30 1991 Science paper. A review can be found here. National Public Radio Interview with Deborah Blum (You'll need Real Audio for this) Homosexuality topics: Read each of these to stimulate discussion (read here). All letters are in response to National Public Radio series on the biology of homosexuality. A comparison of rearing male vs. female children. Why Can't a Woman be More Like a Man? Find out here. Men, Women, and Sex Differences: The Attitu

"Men's and women's brains are distinctly different," says de Courten-Myers. "While men have more neurons in the cerebral cortex, the brain's outer layer, women have more neuropil, which contains the structures needed for cell-to-cell communication."

Males possess more numerous, tightly packed nerve cells (neurons) than females. Neurons send and receive electrical signals that influence many functions of the body and create thoughts and feelings. Females tend to have more neuropil, the fibrillar tissue between nerve cell bodies which contains the synapses, dendrites, and axons that enable neurons to communicate with many other nerve cells

Although a man and woman may lose the same number of neurons due to a disease, the woman's functional loss may be greater because the cells lost are more densely connected with other neurons. "Conversely, in males, the reserve of neurons may be greater, which could prevent some of the functional losses

Deak is a psychologist and author of "Girls will be Girls." She lectures around the world about sex and gender. And she's on the board of the Seattle Girls' School. She spoke mostly about adolescence, which she called the magic decade, because there are "things going on that didn't happen before and that won't happen again," she said. I called her office in Ohio and she explained that the amygdala, the part of the brain that deals with emotions, swells, which makes all teens more sensitive and volatile. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex stops functioning well. That's the part that controls higher functions, like judgment. Hormones keep teens from falling asleep when parents say they should and make it difficult for them to wake up at hours dictated by school schedules. The single most profound difference we could make on education, Deak said, would be to let teens sleep on nature's schedule (midnight to 9 a.m. or later).

Table 1 Statistical significance of differences between right and left cerebral cortical thickness in male and female rats ( S=statistically significant; NS=nonstatistically significant)           Cortical Areas           Age (days) N Frontal   Parietal     Occipital         10 4 3 2 18 17 18A   6 13 S S S NS S S S   14 17 S S S NS S S S Males 20 15 S S S NS S S NS   90 15 NS S S NS NS S NS   185 15 S NS S S S S S   400 15 S NS S S S S NS   900

Men's brains tend to perform tasks predominantly with the left-side, which is the logical/rational side of the brain. Women, on the other hand, use both sides of their brains because a woman's brain has a larger corpus callosum, which means women can transfer data between the right and left hemispheres faster than men.

Human relationships. Women tend to communicate more effectively than men

In fact, your brain is the boss of your body. It runs the show and controls just about everything you do, even when you're asleep. Not bad for something that looks like a big, wrinkly, gray sponge

That men and women are different, everyone knows that. But, aside from external anatomical and primary and secondary sexual differences, scientists know also that there are many other subtle differences in the way the brains from men and women process language, information, emotion, cognition, etc.

human females tend to be higher than males in empathy, verbal skills, social skills and security-seeking, among other things, while men tend to be higher in independence, dominance, spatial and mathematical skills, rank-related aggression, and other characteristics.

nferior-parietal lobule (IPL) which is significantly larger in men than in women