Gendered Brains
Jan. 28th, 2005 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerOur research group has recently analysed the proportion of each sex with each of these profiles, and the results are striking. For every 10 men, six will have a male brain, two will have a balanced brain, and two will have a female brain. In contrast, for every 10 women, four will have the female brain, four will have the balanced brain, and two will have a male brain. We can conclude that you cannot tell what kind of brain a person has from their sex. This is a satisfying result because it works against stereotyping the sexes.
Women's brains interestingly have a thicker corpus callosum (the connective tissue between the two hemispheres, which allows for better communication between them), and women tend to use both hemispheres for some language tasks. Girls also talk earlier than boys. When given a photo of a person's eyes to judge how the person in the photo is feeling, women on average do better than men. And when asked to find a target shape hidden in a complex pattern, women are on average slower than men.
It turns out that presented with a face or a mechanical mobile to look at, more newborn boys look for longer at the mobile, and more newborn girls at the face. And the amount of testosterone produced by the foetus and measured in the amniotic fluid during pregnancy predicts how much eye contact the baby will make, or how quickly their language will develop. So Summers may be right that biological factors are producing sex differences in the mind, which are further acted upon by the social environment. Evidence that genes are shaping sex differences in the mind has come from the study of women with Turner's Syndrome, who have only one X chromosome instead of the usual two. In these females, if they got their X from their father they appear to have better social skills than if they got their X from their mother, a finding that David Skuse in London's Institute of Child Health interprets as evidence for genes related to social skills residing on the X chromosome but needing two to produce the typical female advantage in empathy. At the moment, there is no equivalent evidence for genes related to systemising or scientific ability. If Summers meant to imply that it's all down to the genes, this is unlikely to be correct and is certainly going beyond any available evidence.
From here.
I'd be happier with 'systemising brain' and 'emotive brain' than 'male brain' and 'female brain' - when only 40% of women have a "female brain" the naming makes little sense to me. The rest is interesting however.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:33 am (UTC)Me, I'm not that great at most sorts of shapes things, generally, but my performance actually varies wildy, perhaps depending on mood/hormonal mix/ and/or what traces of alcohol/caffeine/other drugs are currently knocking round my system. As do time/space/distance tasks such as riding the motorbike fast in traffic, throwing and catching things, karate fights etc. It's most irritating as it does seem to be pretty unpredictable to me.
Any study involving women has to try to correct for current hormonal profile (unless it's comparing the same thing at differnt stages) as it seems to affect so much. Purely physical things like reaction to drugs and mental shit too. Must be a pain the ass for researchers (witness that most drug research is done on young males).
In connection, and back to the shapes/spatial awareness thing, I did read some research that indicates that women's sense of direction tends to worsen dramatically round about ovulation - as to whether this is so you notice it and don't wander off (and meet strange men) or to make it more likely that you DO get lost (and meet strange men) I couldn't begin to speculate. The latter, I'd say judging by the research on what other behavioural changes tend to go on round about that point (wearing more revealing clothes, more likelihood of unfaithfulness, I think most of it is even if the women don't know for sure that they are at that point in the cycle). Hmm, maybe I should pay attention to this, to see if it has any validity personally.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:43 am (UTC)Sigh, I just remembered, this study is likely junk. The last set of studies (that were touted popularly and widely as being exceedingly rigorous and well-done) stated categorically that women had narrower corpus callosums than men (and this was used as a way to identify allegedly "gay male brains". Remembering that makes me exceptionally doubtful that this study is valid in all points.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 04:11 pm (UTC)And do you believe there are 9 correct ways of dividing the universe?
Really?