You may well have read the news stories… Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to plot the brain wiring maps of 949 people aged 8 to 22 and demonstrated that “fundamentally different connectivity patterns in males and females” exist. But do they?
They stated that women’s brains had more connectivity across the two hemispheres while men’s brains had greater connectivity within each brain hemisphere. These findings, they said, helped to explain behavioural differences between the sexes, such as women being more intuitive thinkers and born ‘multi-taskers’ compared to men being good at sports and map-reading. “The connections that mean girls are made for multi-tasking,” said the Daily Mail. “… hard-wired difference between male and female brains could explain why men are ‘better at map reading’” said The Independent.
But this new research paper did not actually look at behavioural differences between the sexes – things like intuitive thinking and multi-tasking. The researchers made assumptions about how wiring differences could relate to behavioural differences between the sexes.
And the thing is, although these differences are indeed statistically significant, there is a lot of overlap, meaning that your male brain could well be wired more like an average female brain; the reverse being obviously true as well. All this study really shows is that these ‘natural differences’ in the wiring of brains do exist and that they can be grouped together into various categories. A certain degree of hardwiring (nature) is in place before nurture exerts her influence.
Earlier research has shown some real differences; namely that male brains are slightly larger, that women have a higher ratio of grey to white matter and that the amygdala which is responsible for emotional processing are (there are two of them) larger in men… would you believe?
It is time to acknowledge the differences from one brain to another, but as a man reading this, there’s a high chance that your brain is cross-wired in what the researchers consider to be a female orientation. And vice-versa of course; and maybe that’s a very good thing.
They stated that women’s brains had more connectivity across the two hemispheres while men’s brains had greater connectivity within each brain hemisphere. These findings, they said, helped to explain behavioural differences between the sexes, such as women being more intuitive thinkers and born ‘multi-taskers’ compared to men being good at sports and map-reading. “The connections that mean girls are made for multi-tasking,” said the Daily Mail. “… hard-wired difference between male and female brains could explain why men are ‘better at map reading’” said The Independent.
But this new research paper did not actually look at behavioural differences between the sexes – things like intuitive thinking and multi-tasking. The researchers made assumptions about how wiring differences could relate to behavioural differences between the sexes.
And the thing is, although these differences are indeed statistically significant, there is a lot of overlap, meaning that your male brain could well be wired more like an average female brain; the reverse being obviously true as well. All this study really shows is that these ‘natural differences’ in the wiring of brains do exist and that they can be grouped together into various categories. A certain degree of hardwiring (nature) is in place before nurture exerts her influence.
Earlier research has shown some real differences; namely that male brains are slightly larger, that women have a higher ratio of grey to white matter and that the amygdala which is responsible for emotional processing are (there are two of them) larger in men… would you believe?
It is time to acknowledge the differences from one brain to another, but as a man reading this, there’s a high chance that your brain is cross-wired in what the researchers consider to be a female orientation. And vice-versa of course; and maybe that’s a very good thing.
RSS Feed