The Brain

Who has the bigger, better brain? That was always a big question at my high school and everyone competed for the top spot of our grade. Would it be a girl or a guy? Yet, according to Richard Haier, each gender has their brains wired differently than the other. Because of this different brain structure, men and women use different parts of the brain to solve the same problems, causing them to think in different ways. The brain structures between men and women differ in the amount of grey and white matter, different connections between hemispheres, and different areas being more developed than others. In women, there is a lot of grey and white matter in the frontal areas in comparison to the other lobes, while in men, there is a higher amount of grey matter in the parietal areas of their brain. All these differences in the brain structure are caused first by genetics and then by biology, which shows that genetics and biology do have some active role in gender differences through the brain. Also, the “architecture” of the brain affects how we memorize, learn, reason, and focus, causing each of us to have different interests and different abilities in solving problems. This means that maybe a girl can solve math problems better than a guy, while the guy can solve science problems better than the girl. Overall, the way our brains form can influence our interests, what we are good at, and what we will do later in life.

 

A 2014 study conducted by an international research team did the first meta-analysis of studies from 1990-2013 that were performed to see if there were physical gender differences in brain structure (Ruigrok). A meta-analysis is essentially a statistical way to combine similar independent studies and to be able to look at the deviation between the male and female means in standardized units (Hyde, 132). They surveyed 126 research papers with subjects aged 0 years old to 80 years old. Their results showed that men had larger brain volumes, more grey matter, and white matter. On the other hand, women had higher tissue densities in the left frontal lobe and larger volumes in the right frontal lobe. Yet, what does this mean in relation to gender differences? The results show the effect of gender on developing brains. This can pave new roads in neuroscience because differently structured brains can be variously effected by brain diseases, like autism. The results also tell us that there are sex differences between male and female brains, which can lead to these differences to show themselves externally through our talents and abilities.

 

Overall, there are differences between male and female brains, yet to what extent does that influence our ability? Even though our brain accounts for the way we act, think, and move, our talents are also influenced by our environment. The amount of education, the quality of the education, and how much we are encouraged and supported are environmental factors that can influence our own talent. So, how much of a role do the different brain structures play and how much of a role do the environmental factors play? Is one more dominant in influence than the other? All of these questions need to be answered so we can understand the extent of each factor and how we could modify its influence so men and women are equal and sex differences are minimized.

University of Cambridge. Males and Females Differ in Specific Brain Structures. 2014.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/males-and-females-differ-in-specific-brain-structures

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763413003011

 

Why Aren’t More Women in Math and Science? Chapter 8.