differences have been reported for men and women. For example, it has been said that women are better in certain language abilities and men are better in certain spatial abilities. Many studies have tried to find differences in the right and left cerebral hemispheres to suggest that male and female brains are different. However, few of these experiments have found meaningful differences between men and women. If fact, there

he major pathway that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres is called the corpus callosum. (The corpus callosum is the fiber tract made up of 200-250 million axons that is cut in split brain patients.) Some claims have been made that the corpus callosum is

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus of the Hypothalamus: This area of the hypothalamus is involved with circadian rhythms and reproduction cycles. The only difference between women and men in this area is one of shape: in males, this nucleus is shaped like a sphere; in females it is more elongated. However, the number of cells and volume of this nucleus are not different in men and women. It is possible that the shape of the suprachiasmatic nucleus influences the connections that this area makes with other areas of the brain, especially the other areas of the hypothalamus.

The behavioral and neurological differences between men and women require further study. Perhaps new studies will find neuroanatomical differences that explain some of the complex differences between male and female behavior. However, from a review of the current scientific evidence, it appears that differences in many cognitive behaviors (for example, memory) are related more to individual differences between people than to whether people are female or male.