Men and Women's Brains Are 'Wired Differently'

Men and women's brains are wired in completely different ways which may explain why the sexes excel at certain tasks, brain scans reveal.

...Male brains are wired front to back, with few connections bridging the two hemispheres.

In females, the connections criss-cross between left and right.

...But ..."We know that there is no such thing as 'hard wiring' when it comes to brain connections. Connections can change throughout life, in response to experience and learning.

Men and Women's Brains Are 'Wired Differently'


The study says male-female differences are clear, and hard-wired. But neuroscientists study the brain's "plasticity," and know brain structure is changed by learning and experience.

...Prof Heidi Johansen-Berg, an expert in neuroscience at the University of Oxford, said the brain was too complex an organ to be able to make broad generalisations.

"We know that there is no such thing as 'hard wiring' when it comes to brain connections. Connections can change throughout life, in response to experience and learning.

"Often, sophisticated mathematical approaches are used to analyse and describe these brain networks. These methods can be useful to identify differences between groups, but it is often challenging to interpret those differences in biological terms."

Hormones fluctuate, environmental influences change and disappear or persist, and it all can affect the brain - how it works, how it looks and the kinds of diseases that might materialize. So what's the real take home message? Same as it was in 2005, methinks.

..."Increasingly, I think we are realising that drugs have to be personalised and that one drug is not necessarily going to be the same for each individual."

She said that most of the drugs available today had been tested on men, which may mean they are not necessarily the best design for women.

...not only are male and female brains different, but women's brains change throughout life in relation to fluctuating hormone levels.

"That may well affect disease states and how drugs work."

reply to post by soficrow


This was pretty much posted a few min ago...Just letting u know

reply to post by soficrow

Here is the linkie....www.abovetopsecret.com...

We all knew men and women were different though. Didn't we.

One can argue the point but I have seen where very young children will gravitate to the gender specific toy every time. Girls pick up the baby while boys pick up the truck or car.
Equal credit has to go to nature and nurture.
We are complimentary to each other not equal.

reply to post by kurthall


fyi - I scan the news, copy and file before I come to ATS, then check the forum before I post. The brain is one of my special interests and has been since I joined in 2004. For example:
2011: Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study
2011: Mad Cow Disease Agent Can Infect Via the Air
2006: Mind Reading Brain Cells
2005: Neuro-Marketing: Straight to the Brain

You know it's interesting. I am clearly a woman, but I do have some fairly masculine traits, so I'd say my brain is wired somewhat differently than the standard woman's.

I never really identified with the girl toys, for example, and read a map very well with a strong sense of direction which is supposed to be a weakness of women. And I dislike most of the standard "girl" activities even today.

But I also make a living off my language skills.

I think that ties into the idea that while we may be born with tendencies for our brains to be wired in certain ways, we can also train our brains to do other things. The brain does learn although it's much easier for you to get it to learn along paths it's already naturally inclined toward.

I worked for a time with kids who had phonemic awareness issues. Basically, bits of information for language would get "lost" somewhere between the auditory and visual processing centers in their brains and the language centers in their frontal lobes. It meant they might lose whole sounds in words.

Basically, we taught them how their mouths moved when they said each sound and how to be aware of what that felt like. And then, we worked with them to use that ability to form new pathways or strengthen existing weak ones to help them regain their phonemic awareness ability and literacy skills.

It took a long time for some of the severe ones, multiple years (not continuous work), many sessions, lots of drilling. So forming new pathways against the grain of what your brain is inclined toward can be an arduous process.

Of course there is a difference between the two sexes....generally speaking men think with only one "head" *cough *down there*cough* lol

This is only really news to Radical Feminists and PC Extremists. Most of us already knew that men and women were different in more ways than one.

You only just worked this out?

I read long ago that a male has a rush of testosterone at or near birth that causes a seperation of the brain so the signal goes around and this slows down thinking but makes the thoughts much more processed. This slows a man's thinking down a little though, making him more acquard at typing and that sort of stuff. Sometimes this leads to overthinking and a distraction from the job at hand though. It leads to forgetting about the whole picture. This is what is happening in the world today, the women are looking at the whole picture while the men are looking at the pieces which is not necessary many times. Lack of common sense is abundant in the world.

Here, I am a guy and I am showing the flaws of guys. I guess I just didn't get a very good washing when I was born.

reply to post by soficrow


This is a little off topic but maybe you can make a thread of it Softcrow. I'm not much for making threads, they usually don't get much response, I guess people would rather take pills than make small dietary changes that can protect themselves.

On science daily there is an article about ways to boost enzymes that combat the plaque buildup in the brain that leads to increased alzheimer disease procession. It appears that neuraminidase suppression can increase the buildup of the plaques. So Tamaflu works by suppressing these enzymes I guess, so using Tamaflu when not actually sick is a bad thing. The active chemical in Tamaflu is the same as in White Pine needle tea, so I think that should also only be consumed when there is a need. I am trying to find some other foods that contain this enzyme and also locate any food additives that contain it. Here is the link....www.sciencedaily.com... Two heads researching this is better than one. So does suppressing the neuraminidase increase the risk of alzheimer leading to people being more forgetful or having thinking problems?

By the way, I had Chow Chow the last couple of days, it has lots of turmeric in it to combat prions. It is homemade stuff we picked up from a sale where people sell home canned foods and bakery. I guess I need to make some of my aunts recipe but 15 pints is an overkill. The stuff they sell at the store sucks, talk about ruining a good food by commercializing it and using cheap ingredients.

reply to post by rickymouse

Chow Chow to combat Prions? Once you get a prion excuse my language but you're f**ked lol. Just gotta wait while your brain turns to swiss cheese. I don't think we have prions that we sometimes come in contact with to build up a resistance. One of those proteins inside you is like a domino effect. Scarier than viruses and bacteria in my opinion...

reply to post by Swing80s


Here is an article about curcumin. It states part way down that it helps with anti-protein aggregation effects. The source sounds pretty good. Curcumin is found in turmeric, turmeric is found in chow chow.

www.bioportfolio.com... Woops, copied and pasted for spelling and had to reget the link.


Soft crow told me something about this on another thread I think so I looked it up.