The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

[vt]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...g-8978248.html

• TUESDAY 03 DECEMBER 2013

The hardwired difference between male and female brains could explain why men are 'better at map reading'

And why women are 'better at remembering a conversation'



STEVE CONNOR

SCIENCE EDITOR

Monday 02 December 2013

[COLOR=#A2A5A8 !important]465[/COLOR]

PRINT
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A pioneering study has shown for the first time that the brains of men and women are wired up differently which could explain some of the stereotypical differences in male and female behaviour, scientists have said.


Researchers found that many of the connections in a typical male brain run between the front and the back of the same side of the brain, whereas in women the connections are more likely to run from side to side between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
This difference in the way the nerve connections in the brain are “hardwired” occurs during adolescence when many of the secondary sexual characteristics such as facial hair in men and breasts in women develop under the influence of sex hormones, the study found.
The researchers believe the physical differences between the two sexes in the way the brain is hardwired could play an important role in understanding why men are in general better at spatial tasks involving muscle control while women are better at verbal tasks involving memory and intuition.

Psychological testing has consistently indicated a significant difference between the sexes in the ability to perform various mental tasks, with men outperforming women in some tests and women outperforming men in others. Now there seems to be a physical explanation, scientists said.

“These maps show us a stark difference - and complementarity - in the architecture of the human brain that helps to provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” said Ragini Verma, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“What we've identified is that, when looked at in groups, there are connections in the brain that are hardwired differently in men and women. Functional tests have already shown than when they carry out certain tasks, men and women engage different parts of the brain,” Professor Verma said.

The research was carried out on 949 individuals - 521 females and 428 males - aged between 8 and 22. The brain differences between the sexes only became apparent after adolescence, the study found.

A special brain-scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which can measure the flow of water along a nerve pathway, established the level of connectivity between nearly 100 regions of the brain, creating a neural map of the brain called the “connectome”, Professor Verma said.

“It tells you whether one region of the brain is physically connected to another part of the brain and you can get significant differences between two populations,” Professor Verma said. In left and right across the two hemispheres while in men most of the connections go between the front and the back of the brain,” she said.

Because the female connections link the left hemisphere, which is associated with logical thinking, with the right, which is linked with intuition, this could help to explain why women tend to do better than men at intuitive tasks, she added.
“Intuition is thinking without thinking. It's what people call gut feelings. Women tend to be better than men at these kinds of skill which are linked with being good mothers,” Professor Verma said.

Many previous psychological studies have revealed significant differences between the sexes in the ability to perform various cognitive tests.

Men tend to outperform women involving spatial tasks and motor skills - such as map reading - while women tend to better in memory tests, such as remembering words and faces, and social cognition tests, which try to measure empathy and “emotional intelligence”.

A separate study published last month found that the genes expressed in the human brain did so differently in men and women. Post-mortem tests on the brain and spinal cord of 100 individuals showed significant genetic differences between the sexes, which could account for the observed gender differences in neurological disorders, such as autism, according to scientists from University College London.

For instance, one theory of autism, which is affects about five times as many boys as girls, is that it is a manifestation of the “extreme male brain”, which is denoted by a failure to be able to show empathy towards others.

The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that the differences in the male and female “connectomes” develop during at the same age of onset of the gender differences seen in psychological tests.
The only part of the brain where right-left connectivity was greater in men than in women was in the cerebellum, an evolutionary ancient part of the brain that is linked with motor control.

“It's quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are,” said Rubin Gur of Pennsylvania University, a co-author of the study.

“Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neurological disorders, which are often sex related,” Dr Gur said.

[lektrode]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

watch it vt, this topic is what sunk summers (at hahvahd... ;)

gettin to wondren if even this can stop him/them . . .

[vt]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

"Women are better remembering conversations"

Darn right brother! Be careful what you say, because it will be archived

"Men can read maps better" Which is why they don't ask for them when lost?

[flintlock]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

There is also something hardwired into women's brains that wont let them admit they can't read maps. Same phenomena won't let men ask for directions. My wife wont use the GPS because she relies on the voice commands which suck. i glance at the map so I can see whats coming. But seriously, to some they are just squiggly colored lines.

That study won't sit well with the PC mentality that we are all exactly alike, with just a few physical differences. Where any advantage or disadvantage is purely a result of an unjust world.

[Raz]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

"Women are better remembering conversations"

Darn right brother! Be careful what you say, because it will be archived

"A woman is a creature that remembers something you said twelve years ago;
she sits on it like an egg, then hatches it out on Superbowl Sunday/"

Red Foreman (to his son Eric), That 70s Show

[gwynedd1]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

"Women are better remembering conversations"

Darn right brother! Be careful what you say, because it will be archived

"Men can read maps better" Which is why they don't ask for them when lost?

Men don't ask for directions because directions requires having to recall a conversation. I can't stand tat crap either. Men do look for maps all the time, and since they have used land marks for eons, maps are more to that strength. On the frontier , no one had any directions. So it was up to keep track of land marks visually.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...g-8978248.html

• TUESDAY 03 DECEMBER 2013

The hardwired difference between male and female brains could explain why men are 'better at map reading'

And why women are 'better at remembering a conversation'



STEVE CONNOR

SCIENCE EDITOR

Monday 02 December 2013

[COLOR=#A2A5A8 !important]465[/COLOR]

PRINT
A A A

A pioneering study has shown for the first time that the brains of men and women are wired up differently which could explain some of the stereotypical differences in male and female behaviour, scientists have said.


Researchers found that many of the connections in a typical male brain run between the front and the back of the same side of the brain, whereas in women the connections are more likely to run from side to side between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
This difference in the way the nerve connections in the brain are “hardwired” occurs during adolescence when many of the secondary sexual characteristics such as facial hair in men and breasts in women develop under the influence of sex hormones, the study found.
The researchers believe the physical differences between the two sexes in the way the brain is hardwired could play an important role in understanding why men are in general better at spatial tasks involving muscle control while women are better at verbal tasks involving memory and intuition.

Psychological testing has consistently indicated a significant difference between the sexes in the ability to perform various mental tasks, with men outperforming women in some tests and women outperforming men in others. Now there seems to be a physical explanation, scientists said.

“These maps show us a stark difference - and complementarity - in the architecture of the human brain that helps to provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” said Ragini Verma, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“What we've identified is that, when looked at in groups, there are connections in the brain that are hardwired differently in men and women. Functional tests have already shown than when they carry out certain tasks, men and women engage different parts of the brain,” Professor Verma said.

The research was carried out on 949 individuals - 521 females and 428 males - aged between 8 and 22. The brain differences between the sexes only became apparent after adolescence, the study found.

A special brain-scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging, which can measure the flow of water along a nerve pathway, established the level of connectivity between nearly 100 regions of the brain, creating a neural map of the brain called the “connectome”, Professor Verma said.

“It tells you whether one region of the brain is physically connected to another part of the brain and you can get significant differences between two populations,” Professor Verma said. In left and right across the two hemispheres while in men most of the connections go between the front and the back of the brain,” she said.

Because the female connections link the left hemisphere, which is associated with logical thinking, with the right, which is linked with intuition, this could help to explain why women tend to do better than men at intuitive tasks, she added.
“Intuition is thinking without thinking. It's what people call gut feelings. Women tend to be better than men at these kinds of skill which are linked with being good mothers,” Professor Verma said.

Many previous psychological studies have revealed significant differences between the sexes in the ability to perform various cognitive tests.

Men tend to outperform women involving spatial tasks and motor skills - such as map reading - while women tend to better in memory tests, such as remembering words and faces, and social cognition tests, which try to measure empathy and “emotional intelligence”.

A separate study published last month found that the genes expressed in the human brain did so differently in men and women. Post-mortem tests on the brain and spinal cord of 100 individuals showed significant genetic differences between the sexes, which could account for the observed gender differences in neurological disorders, such as autism, according to scientists from University College London.

For instance, one theory of autism, which is affects about five times as many boys as girls, is that it is a manifestation of the “extreme male brain”, which is denoted by a failure to be able to show empathy towards others.

The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that the differences in the male and female “connectomes” develop during at the same age of onset of the gender differences seen in psychological tests.
The only part of the brain where right-left connectivity was greater in men than in women was in the cerebellum, an evolutionary ancient part of the brain that is linked with motor control.

“It's quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are,” said Rubin Gur of Pennsylvania University, a co-author of the study.

“Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neurological disorders, which are often sex related,” Dr Gur said.

Who didnt know this?

I told my GF when she was complaining about not being able to see well at night that "women on average begin to lose their night vision at 18"

She also has not so good spatial skills (evidenced by playing PS3 games where she decides to jump off the cliff instead of to the other side of the cliff) and doesnt understand directions that well but is a good driver overall.

I told her it is all because on average women aren't good at those things. I don't play the "political correctness" game.

Now she will make comments like "I wish I could see better at night but I know its because of genetics!"

I remember details on just about everything even conversations years after they occurred. She always remarks on my memorization ability that seems to be far in advance of the norm (so I am told).

I can tell you the things I am not good at. For some reason I cannot remember a math formula for my life and have to look even the most basic formulas up but I can remember numbers of the most esoteric kind years after I read about them on a screen.

Just the other day the GF was saying how "remember we didnt get to the movie at Look cinemas in time and then ate at the indian restuarant instead"

I looked at her totally perplexed and said but their isnt an indian restaurant near to Look cinemas?

Then I said that you must be mixing up Look cinemas with SMG cinemas where we did in fact miss the showing and go to eat indian next door. Look cinemas was where we went and you broke your flip flop.

I can also remember details of conversations with friends or anyone that I have spoken to in the past and when speaking with them in current time (and they bring up something they have already told me months to years ago) I say, you have already told me that.

A good friend has completely given up questioning any facts or statistics I produce during our conversations because for a full year and a half he questioned the facts/statistics and would then look them up only to have what I said confirmed by an independent source.

Unfortunately I have a tough time figuring out when someone is being sarcastic and take what people say literally. I also have a propensity to say things that come to my mind immediately even though I am extremely empathetic towards individuals. I have learned over the years to watch carefully what I say as most people have not done the research or do not think as independently (constrained by PC propaganda) as perhaps I do and to carefully construct my thoughts.

It is not a pleasant feeling when you want to express a realist point of view and most of the rest of the world wants to express some propagandist viewpoint or very emotional/political viewpoint.

How can one be called a communist and a fascist in the same day?

[photon555]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

Who didnt know this?

I told my GF when she was complaining about not being able to see well at night that "women on average begin to lose their night vision at 18"

She also has not so good spatial skills (evidenced by playing PS3 games where she decides to jump off the cliff instead of to the other side of the cliff) and doesnt understand directions that well but is a good driver overall.

I told her it is all because on average women aren't good at those things. I don't play the "political correctness" game.

Now she will make comments like "I wish I could see better at night but I know its because of genetics!"

I remember details on just about everything even conversations years after they occurred. She always remarks on my memorization ability that seems to be far in advance of the norm (so I am told).

I can tell you the things I am not good at. For some reason I cannot remember a math formula for my life and have to look even the most basic formulas up but I can remember numbers of the most esoteric kind years after I read about them on a screen.

Just the other day the GF was saying how "remember we didnt get to the movie at Look cinemas in time and then ate at the indian restuarant instead"

I looked at her totally perplexed and said but their isnt an indian restaurant near to Look cinemas?

Then I said that you must be mixing up Look cinemas with SMG cinemas where we did in fact miss the showing and go to eat indian next door. Look cinemas was where we went and you broke your flip flop.

I can also remember details of conversations with friends or anyone that I have spoken to in the past and when speaking with them in current time (and they bring up something they have already told me months to years ago) I say, you have already told me that.

A good friend has completely given up questioning any facts or statistics I produce during our conversations because for a full year and a half he questioned the facts/statistics and would then look them up only to have what I said confirmed by an independent source.

Unfortunately I have a tough time figuring out when someone is being sarcastic and take what people say literally. I also have a propensity to say things that come to my mind immediately even though I am extremely empathetic towards individuals. I have learned over the years to watch carefully what I say as most people have not done the research or do not think as independently (constrained by PC propaganda) as perhaps I do and to carefully construct my thoughts.

It is not a pleasant feeling when you want to express a realist point of view and most of the rest of the world wants to express some propagandist viewpoint or very emotional/political viewpoint.

How can one be called a communist and a fascist in the same day?

Your GF might try Bilberry extract. During WWII RAF pilots ate bilberries before night missions. I'm 63 and still have fairly good night vision.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

Your GF might try Bilberry extract. During WWII RAF pilots ate bilberries before night missions. I'm 63 and still have fairly good night vision.

Thank you Photon, already told her.

[davidstvz]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

I also have a very good memory for technical detail. I will remember little details like the movie theater thing you described and am somewhat alarmed by my GF's inability to remember such things accurately. But she totally busted out something I said in conversation with her a week before... she did it just the other night. However, I returned the favor! I can remember conversations too, or elements of them, if I actually listen to them or if they catch my attention. And I usually do listen to her, especially if she is in the room.

[shiny!]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

It is not a pleasant feeling when you want to express a realist point of view and most of the rest of the world wants to express some propagandist viewpoint or very emotional/political viewpoint.

I feel your pain.

w/ regards to the article, I'm good at reading maps, even better at following verbal directions that include landmarks such as "drive until you see the McDonald's sign, then turn left at the next street". If the verbal directions say "Go 500 yards then turn left" I'll fail because I can't determine distances by sight. I can't even tell you how many feet away the door is from where I'm sitting.

I get killed in arcade games within the first five seconds. I can never remember mathematical details that occur in the financial discussions here. But my gut often tells me when something is wrong with an argument even if I can't articulate why. Too many times to count I've had conversations that go:

Guy: "blah blah blah... "
Me: "You're wrong."
Guy: "What do you mean I'm wrong? How am I wrong?"
Me: "I don't know, but my gut is telling me you're wrong."
Guy: "That's totally illogical!"
Me: "I know, but you're still wrong."

And later, I'm proven right. Drives most men crazy.

[ASH]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

shiny!, this study doesn't really support these conclusions about pronounced gender differences anyway. It's mostly people reading their existing gender biases into the interpretation of the data.

In an larger earlier study (from which the participants of the PNAS study were a subset), the same research team compellingly demonstrated that the sex differences in the psychological skills they measured – executive control, memory, reasoning, spatial processing, sensorimotor skills, and social cognition – are almost all trivially small.

Biological sex is a dismal guide to psychological ability. To give a sense of the huge overlap in behaviour between males and females, of the twenty-six possible comparisons, eleven sex differences were either non-existent, or so small that if you were to select a boy and girl at random and compare their scores on a task, the “right” sex would be superior less than 53% of the time.

Even the much-vaunted female advantage in social cognition, and male advantage in spatial processing, was so modest that a randomly chosen boy would outscore a randomly chosen girl on social cognition – and the girl would outscore the boy on spatial processing – over 40% of the time.

As for map-reading and remembering conversations, these weren’t measured at all.

The 10% gender discrepancy that apparently exists for some types of tasks doesn't seem large enough to me to account for our perceptions of "how men are" or "how women are". I mean, if we're randomly selecting two people to test for these mental skills and gender has at most a 10% impact on the probability person A will be better than person B at a task, it's not really a category-defining trait. (And this isn't the case where all men are 10% better than all women at a given task, or vice-versa; these are two interpenetrating distributions of ability that are shifted relative to each other.) For that matter, we tend to get better at the things we practice, and our brains do tend to adapt... it's unclear whether the differences in connectivity that were found are cause or effect. But it seems to me that the gender differences people believe to exist are a good deal more pronounced than the gender differences that can be objectively measured. It's just that with a particular stereotype in mind, we confirm our biases and tend to interpret any specific observation that happens to align with the stereotype as being caused by that stereotype. To give an example, if I was gay and noted my significant other was better at reading maps than me, I would still rule out gender as a possible explanation because we'd both be male (presuming we're both 'average' guys, it would be a coin flip). On the other hand, if I notice I'm better at reading maps than my wife, I'm tempted to conclude that's because of our respective genders when in fact it's still mostly chance (again, if I'm a hypothetical "randomly selected dude", there's only a 60-40 chance I'd perform better than a girl). And then when it comes to forums like this, there are (I think) other selective factors. Y'all are smart. Thus, you are good at doing things, and you're most likely decent even at the things you aren't especially good at doing. So you're not randomly-selected men or women; you're people who were "iTulip-selected". Depending upon how you selected your points of gender comparison, you might mistakenly attribute to gender differences relative results that actually originate from more general differences in ability. Keep in mind that these distributions of ability across each gender population are a lot wider than the relative shift between the distributions for the two genders, so there are plenty of opportunities to notice "I am good/bad at X" because there are billions of people of widely varying ability at X. The actual cause of that random variation comes down to a complex of factors, each with a small cumulative impact, but if you have in your head a particular bias, then you're likely to attribute all of the cause of your goodness or badness to that particular factor, even when that factor's influence was in fact marginal.

[Slimprofits]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

In other words, the article from the Independent (that was copied all over the Internet) is basically a load of crap with the sole purpose of generating clicks, facebook posts, tweets, retweets and comment threads.

shiny!, this study doesn't really support these conclusions about pronounced gender differences anyway. It's mostly people reading their existing gender biases into the interpretation of the data.

In an larger earlier study (from which the participants of the PNAS study were a subset), the same research team compellingly demonstrated that the sex differences in the psychological skills they measured – executive control, memory, reasoning, spatial processing, sensorimotor skills, and social cognition – are almost all trivially small.

Biological sex is a dismal guide to psychological ability. To give a sense of the huge overlap in behaviour between males and females, of the twenty-six possible comparisons, eleven sex differences were either non-existent, or so small that if you were to select a boy and girl at random and compare their scores on a task, the “right” sex would be superior less than 53% of the time.

Even the much-vaunted female advantage in social cognition, and male advantage in spatial processing, was so modest that a randomly chosen boy would outscore a randomly chosen girl on social cognition – and the girl would outscore the boy on spatial processing – over 40% of the time.

As for map-reading and remembering conversations, these weren’t measured at all.

The 10% gender discrepancy that apparently exists for some types of tasks doesn't seem large enough to me to account for our perceptions of "how men are" or "how women are". I mean, if we're randomly selecting two people to test for these mental skills and gender has at most a 10% impact on the probability person A will be better than person B at a task, it's not really a category-defining trait. (And this isn't the case where all men are 10% better than all women at a given task, or vice-versa; these are two interpenetrating distributions of ability that are shifted relative to each other.) For that matter, we tend to get better at the things we practice, and our brains do tend to adapt... it's unclear whether the differences in connectivity that were found are cause or effect. But it seems to me that the gender differences people believe to exist are a good deal more pronounced than the gender differences that can be objectively measured. It's just that with a particular stereotype in mind, we confirm our biases and tend to interpret any specific observation that happens to align with the stereotype as being caused by that stereotype. To give an example, if I was gay and noted my significant other was better at reading maps than me, I would still rule out gender as a possible explanation because we'd both be male (presuming we're both 'average' guys, it would be a coin flip). On the other hand, if I notice I'm better at reading maps than my wife, I'm tempted to conclude that's because of our respective genders when in fact it's still mostly chance (again, if I'm a hypothetical "randomly selected dude", there's only a 60-40 chance I'd perform better than a girl). And then when it comes to forums like this, there are (I think) other selective factors. Y'all are smart. Thus, you are good at doing things, and you're most likely decent even at the things you aren't especially good at doing. So you're not randomly-selected men or women; you're people who were "iTulip-selected". Depending upon how you selected your points of gender comparison, you might mistakenly attribute to gender differences relative results that actually originate from more general differences in ability. Keep in mind that these distributions of ability across each gender population are a lot wider than the relative shift between the distributions for the two genders, so there are plenty of opportunities to notice "I am good/bad at X" because there are billions of people of widely varying ability at X. The actual cause of that random variation comes down to a complex of factors, each with a small cumulative impact, but if you have in your head a particular bias, then you're likely to attribute all of the cause of your goodness or badness to that particular factor, even when that factor's influence was in fact marginal.

[shiny!]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

Thank you, ASH. You make perfect sense. People do tend to notice the things that fit stereotypes or confirm their biases, and ignore the things that don't.

Personally, NVLD has far more impact on my various strengths, weaknesses and quirks than does my gender.

[Forrest]

Re: The Hardwired Difference Between Male and Female Brains

"The research was carried out on 949 individuals - 521 females and 428 males - aged between 8 and 22. The brain differences between the sexes only became apparent after
adolescence, the study found."

Obviously all children from age 7 to 15 need to be taught pool, or be taken skeet shooting, and on hiking trips into strange territory with maps and compasses, as well as other such enjoyable spatial coordination games. It's amazing how much it helps your mapping skills once you understand the relationships in your mind.