It’s no secret that males and females are vastly different.
The differences between genders extend beyond what the eye can see. Research
reveals major distinguishers between male and female brains. In a world
of equal rights, pay gaps, and gender-specific toys, one question remains
central to our understanding of the two biological sexes. Are men's and women's
brains wired differently? How is that relevant?
Do men and women perform the same tasks differently? Do such differences affect men versus women's vulnerability to different brain disorders? The perspective that "gendered" preferences can be explained through hormonal activity and differences in the brains of men and women remains controversial.
Scientists also have discovered exceptions to every
so-called gender rule. With all
gender differences, no one way of doing things is better or worse. The four differences
listed below are simply generalized differences in typical brain functioning. It
is important to remember that all differences have advantages and disadvantages:
Blood Flow and Brain Activity While we are on the subject of emotional processing, another
difference worth looking closely at is the activity difference between male and
female brains. The female brain, in part thanks to far more natural blood flow
throughout the brain at any given moment (more white matter processing), and
because of a higher degree of blood flow in a concentration
part of the brain called the cingulate
gyrus will often think over and revisit emotional memories more than the
male brain.
Males are designed differently.
Males are more likely after reflecting more briefly on an emotive memory, to
analyze it somewhat then move onto the next task. During this process, they may
also choose to change course and do something active and unrelated to feelings
rather than analyze their feelings at all. Observers may mistakenly believe
that boys avoid feelings in comparison to girls or move to problem-solving too
quickly.
Chemistry Male
and female brains process the same neurochemicals, but to different degrees and
through gender-specific body-brain connections. Some dominant neurochemicals
are serotonin, which among
other things helps you sit still. Testosterone is the sex and aggression
chemical. Estrogen is a female growth and reproductive chemical.
Oxytocin is a bonding-relationship
chemical. Because of differences in processing these chemicals, males on
average tend to be less inclined to sit still for as long as females and tend
to be more physically impulsive and aggressive. Males process less of the
bonding chemical oxytocin than females. A major takeaway of chemistry
differences is to realize that boys at times need different strategies for stress release than girls.
Processing Male
brains utilize nearly seven times more gray
matter for activity while female brains utilize nearly ten times more white matter. Gray matter areas of
the brain are localized. They are information- and action-processing centers in
specific areas of the brain. This can translate to a kind of tunnel vision when
they are doing something. Once they are deeply engaged in a task or game, they
may not demonstrate much sensitivity to other people or their surroundings.
White matter is the networking grid
that connects the brain’s gray matter and other processing centers with one
another. This profound brain-processing difference is probably one reason you
may have noticed that females tend to more quickly transition between tasks
than boys do. The gray-white matter difference may explain why, in adulthood,
females are great multi-taskers while men excel in highly task-focused
projects.
Structural Differences A
number of structural elements in the human brain differ between males and
females. “Structural” refers to actual parts of the brain and the way they are
built including their size and/or mass. Females often have a larger
hippocampus, our human memory center.
Females also often have a higher density of neural connections
into the hippocampus. As a result, girls and women tend to input or absorb more
sensorial and emotive information than males do. By “sensorial” we mean
information to and from all five senses.
If you note your observations over the
next months of boys and girls and women and men, you will find that females
tend to sense a lot more of what is going on around them throughout the day,
and they retain that sensorial information more than do men. Before boys or
girls are born, their brains developed with different hemispheric divisions of
labor. The right and left hemispheres of the male and female brains are not set
up exactly the same way. For instance, females tend to have verbal centers on
both sides of the brain, while males tend to have verbal centers on only the
left hemisphere.
This is a significant difference.
Girls tend to use more words when discussing or describing incidence, story,
person, object, feeling, or place. Males not only have fewer verbal centers in
general but often have less connectivity between their word centers and their
memories or feelings. When it comes to discussing feelings and emotions and
senses together, girls tend to have an advantage, and they tend to have more
interest in talking about these things.
“Men mourn for what they have lost. Women for what they
ain’t got.”
(Josh Billings) [i]
[i] Sources used:
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