W

four
four part guide: paOF AEEK

YOURbrain howtoto
brainhow use it
part guide:

YOUR use it it
rt four O
gu NE
id
January 28, 2007
e
January 14, 2007
7, 2007

SET YOURSELF FREE

Your brain is the key to who you really are – learn
its secrets and it will unlock your true potential
 YOUR brainhow to use it
6
4 A beginner’s guide
Your brain is the most complex object in
the universe. Our illustrated guide to its
basic mechanics reveals how it works

6 Behind your mask

COVER: MARK GUTHRIE. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: WAI KAN. MODEL WEARS VEST BY PENGUIN, LEGGINGS BY SWEATY BETTY, BALLET PUMP TRAINERS AND CROP JACKET BY PUMA. This page: left, top: ALamy. left, middle top and bottom: CORBIS. top middle: Topham picturepoint

Your personality is controlled by five

key traits – find out what they are,
and how much of each you possess
8
8 Sex and sensibility
Can the key differences in male and
female brains explain why men are
from Mars and women from Venus?

10 Mind over mood

Emotions were once seen as separate
from reason – but research now shows
that the two are inextricably linked

12
12 In the brain scientist’s lab
The experiments that broke new ground
in brain science. This week: the pleasure
centre. Plus the power of laughter

BRAIN TESTS
7 Find out how you score in the Big Five personality test
9 Do you have a male or female brain?
10 Is your outlook glass-half-full or glass-half-empty?

NEXT WEEK BREAKING OUT: train your brain in love, sex, family
and relationships as we reveal not just how to keep your head but
how best to use it. Discover how to improve your sex life, find the right
partner, enjoy fulfilling relationships and survive family life. Learn how
to manage your brain as it evolves with age, test yourself with more
quizzes and expand your mind with more cerebral facts
CATCH UP at www.timesonline.co.uk/brain

ContributOrs: Editor Dorothy Wade Assistant editor Mary Braid Art director Jo Mizen
Chief sub-editor Matt Munday Writers Susannah Price, Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe,
Melanie Clayton Designer Kate Andrews Sub-editors Justin Hood, Judith Allison

book offer Did you know?

Your Brain: How to Use It is adapted from The Owner’s Manual
for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research
by Pierce J Howard (Bard Press, £17.99), which is available at
the Sunday Times BooksFirst price of £16.19, including p&p. To
order a copy, tel: 0870 165 8585. Pierce J Howard, PhD, is a
leading cognitive-science researcher, educator and author.
He is director of research at the Center for Applied Cognitive
Studies (CentACS) in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is an oft-
quoted authority on new findings in the cognitive sciences
It is possible for a human being to function
normally with only half a brain. Most children
up to the age of 14 who have had either the
right or left brain hemisphere surgically
removed suffer no memory loss, can regain
language ability and can achieve average IQs.
Scientists believe that this is due to the brain’s
plasticity – its ability to re-wire itself and activate new
areas in order to compensate for damage.

free dvd
The Sunday Times and Mensa offer you the chance to challenge
yourself with this interactive DVD quiz, free with today’s newspaper.
Played with your DVD remote control, it’s a great way to exercise
your brain and see if you would make it as a Mensa member
 The sunday times
 Brain chemistry the more
you learn about your brain’s
capabilities, the more
you can make it work for you
Hit or Myth? Five brain discoveries and five brain myths
1 Cell regeneration. Contrary to popular belief, we now
know that humans can produce new brain cells to
replace old ones. This could help sufferers of brain injuries.
hit MYTH
2 Mirror neurons. A neuroscientist has identified the
brain cells used in learning and imitating actions. This
could lead to new treatments for dyslexia and autism.
3 Implants. Electric impulses from battery-controlled
implants in the brain have positive effects on
disorders including depression, epilepsy and strokes.
4 The adolescent brain. Researchers have identified
two growth-spurts of brain cells – one at puberty, the
other later – that help explain the volatility of adolescence.
5 Blindness. Using “goggles” that send electrical signals
from a camera via a computer to electrodes in the
visual cortex, blind people can see outlines of objects.
Use your brain
to change
your life
Y
our brain drives every aspect of your
life – from intelligence, health and
appetite to happiness, personality
and relationships. But while science
is making huge progress in unlocking the
brain’s secrets, its inner workings remain a
mystery to most of us.
This Sunday Times guide gives you the
tools to understand and use your mind better.
Over the next four weeks we will feature
cutting-edge research that will open up a new
world of possibilities for using your brain.
You will learn more about yourself, more
about how to apply your skills and more about
how to improve your performance, fitness,
health and IQ, as well as how to improve and
manage your relationships – from your love
life and family to the way you work.
Interactive psychological tests appear
throughout the guides to help you discover
more about yourself – your character,
strengths, weaknesses, powers of memory
and emotional make-up. You will also learn
how to harness, refine and use the knowledge
that you acquire.
Being happier, healthier, smarter, wittier
and wiser is up to you. It’s all in the mind and
how you choose to use it.
1 We use only 10% of our brains. Brain-imaging scans
show that we use most of our brain most of the time.
2 Personality depends on which side of the brain is
dominant. Creatives were thought to be right-brain
dominant and logical thinkers left-brain dominant. Now
scans show that the two brain hemispheres work together.
3 Men are more intelligent than women. On average,
men have larger brains than women, but there is very
little relationship between brain size and intelligence.
4 Memory operates like a muscle, and can be
strengthened like one. Memory is not a muscle, but
works by strengthening particular connections in the brain.
5 Once we are adults, our brains do not change.
Stimulation through learning increases blood flow to
the neurons and boosts brain efficiency throughout life.
your brain: how to use it 
 1. A beginner’s guide to the brain: how you think, why your instincts can rule your intellect, and how

The secret world of the mind Primary Motor Cortex

Sends signals to stimulate
your muscles in order to

T
he human brain is the most complex object
known in the universe. The ugly, wrinkled lump
of pink jelly inside your head – 3lb of water, fat,
protein and salt – contains a staggeringly brilliant
design. It enables billions of brain cells to make trillions
of connections, each with its own wired-in purpose,
giving rise to a multitude of thoughts, feelings, ideas and
memories in all of us.
Western thinking about the brain is based on the ideas
of the 17th-century French philosopher and scientist René
Descartes, who argued that the mind and the body were
separate entities. But now we know that the mind (ideas
and images) and the physical brain (cells, chemicals and
electricity) directly and immediately influence each other.
And the brain is not confined to your head: brain cells
extend to the tail of your spinal cord. From there, a maze of
nerves reaches out, allowing the brain, its hormones and
other chemical messengers to control the entire body. move your body
New imaging techniques that allow us to peer into the
secret world of the brain have led to an explosion in brain
research and the birth of a new field – cognitive science.
A century ago, behaviourists such as Ivan Pavlov and
BF Skinner thought of the mind as a giant collection of Premotor Cortex
reflexes: they believed we were conditioned to respond to Co-ordinates complex
stimuli like a dog salivating to the sound of a bell. But movements such as
today’s cognitive scientists see the human brain as an active, playing the guitar
probing intelligence that explores and reflects on the
outside world, imposing structure and order on the
buzzing chaos outside.
This page takes you through the nuts and
bolts of your mind – although you will find
that the brain is not merely a machine or a
computer; it is an organic living entity that is
much more than the sum of its parts.

How a brain cell works

SYNAPSES
These are the tiny gaps between brain cells (neurons) where learning occurs. A neuron is Prefrontal Cortex
typically composed of a main cell body and two branches that communicate with other Focuses on imagination,
neurons. The outgoing branch is the axon; the incoming branch the dendrite. The synapse thinking, personality,
is the space where the axon of one neuron connects to the dendrite of another. Each learning and behaviour
neuron is connected to hundreds of others by thousands of synapses. Learning multiplies
the synapses; the more a brain has, the greater its mental capacity. It has been calculated
Broca’s Area
that it would take 32 million years to count the synapses in the cerebral cortex alone.
Produces speech

ELECTRICITY The Neuron When CHEMISTRY

All cells in the body have
electrical properties –
there is a difference in
electrical charge
between their outside
and inside. Positively
charged ions such as
sodium are pumped out
of the cell, leaving a
negative resting potential
inside. When a brain cell
is triggered, electrical
MAIN ILLUSTRATION: ELLIOT THORBURN. BOTTOM LEFT AND BOTTOM RIGHT: GARY COOK
triggered, it fires a wave
of electrical discharge
The axon The electricity
speeds along the insulated
axon towards the synapses
Once a neuron
has fired, its axon
gets the message to
release a signature
“information substance” – a
brain chemical such as a
neurotransmitter or a steroid – into
the synapse. On the other side of the
synapse, receptors on nearby neurons wait
ready to gobble the chemical up. The chemical
may then excite the neuron to fire off another message,
or inhibit it from doing so. The patterns coded in each

charges flow up through electrical spike, and the shape of the neuron network that is
a bush of dendrites; if triggered, determine the meaning of the message. There are
enough accumulate on trillions of possibilities: hence the limitless complexity of human
the cell body, the neuron behaviour. However, familiar pathways of neurons are etched
fires and a wave of into the brain just as paths are trampled through a corn field,
electricity (known as the giving us memories and individuality. Brain chemicals include:
action potential) speeds n Noradrenaline: a kind of “printer” that fixes information into
down the axon towards long-term memory and helps establish new synapses for memory.
neighbouring neurons. n Dopamine: higher levels are associated with creativity, the
Thus neurons can deliver ability to visualise and the tendency to ask “what if…” questions.
a message almost instantly. n Endorphins: the opiate within the brain, released in the
Thickly insulated motor presence of pain and both vigorous and relaxing exercise.
nerves conduct their n Serotonin: low levels are associated with depression;
signals throughout the The synaptic gap Here, increased levels with sleep and relaxation.
body at several hundred chemicals are released to n GABA: low levels of GABA, a “calming” neurotransmitter, and
kilometres per hour. stimulate the next neuron low levels of serotonin are a recipe for violence and aggression.

 The sunday times

lifelong learning boosts your brain power

Primary Sensory Cortex Sensory Association More clever by half

Receives signals from Area Interprets skin The comparison between a rat’s brain and a human brain
the sensors in your skin sensations and stores is dramatic. All but a sliver of a rat’s brain is “committed” to
and muscles them in your memory specific activities such as moving, hearing, touching,
smelling and seeing. These areas can’t be used for any

Main areas of the Wernicke’s Area

other function. By contrast, over half the human brain is
uncommitted and available for new learning. New
cerebral cortex Helps you to understand
language – both written
synapses and networks of brain cells can be formed to aid
creativity, problem solving, analysis and memory.
and spoken

Did you know?

Visual Association Area Rage, and even criminal behaviour,
Forms images by may be associated with tumours in the brain.
analysing input from the In 1980, a Californian man turned himself in
primary visual cortex after repeated violent outbursts. After a tumour
causing pressure in his brain was surgically
removed, his rages disappeared. The tumour may
have been preventing his brain from moving from
emotional arousal to a calmer state.

Three brains in one

Our brains have evolved in three key stages, two of which
developed in animals first. During the dinosaur era, the
lizard brain (the brain stem) was geared only to survival
functions. Over time, the leopard and other mammals
emerged. The leopard brain (or limbic system) had the
capacity for emotion and co-ordination of movement. The
Primary Auditory third phase of evolution produced the learning brain: the
Cortex Detects sound cerebral cortex. This enabled humans to solve problems,
use language and numbers, develop memory and be
creative. Today, all three stages co-exist in our brains. A kind
Primary Visual Cortex of toggle-switch – the reticular activating system (RAS) – is
Receives signals located in an area that begins in the upper brain stem and
from your eyes continues into the lower part of the cerebral cortex. Switching
occurs when we become emotionally charged or when
we relax. When we are emotional, the RAS shuts down the
learning brain and instinct and training take over. When a
threat is removed, the RAS switches the cortex back on.
BRAIN WAVES

l There is evidence that talking promotes The cerebral

positive emotions in the brain. If you know cortex
people who need cheering up, engage them
in conversation. There is also evidence that
artistic activity serves as an effective vehicle to The limbic
express negative emotions. system
Auditory Association
Cortex Detects and l Too little calcium in your diet results in protein
memorises sound buildup at the synapse, which can affect
memory. Calpain, a compound derived from The brain
patterns such as words,
calcium, dissolves the protein build-up. The stem
tunes or choruses
dietary sources of calpain are dairy products
and leafy green vegetables.

your brain: how to use it 

 2. Your personality: is it a work of nature or nurture? Face the facts, take the test, learn more about who
BRAINWAVES
How to make your
personality work for you
Your adult personality
is unlikely to change
significantly. But you can
find ways to compensate
for shortcomings.
l Try to learn some
behaviour that offsets
extreme traits you may
possess. Extroverts, for
example, could spend a
solitary hour reading.
l Delegate some tasks
that require using a
trait that is unnatural to
you. For example, get
an extrovert to chair
your meeting.
l Observe how people
with opposite traits to
yours naturally act, and
use that behaviour to
influence them.
l Some traits will emerge
in your children that you
do not share. Denying
those traits will only lead
to guilt and frustration for
both of you. Help them to
develop their strengths.
l Don’t try to change
people that you work or
live with. Learn to work
with what they are and
compensate for what
they are not.
l Remember that you
have a threshold for a
behaviour. When your
body says “enough”
(enough stress,
stimulation, focused
attention etc) try to have
a break and engage in a
contrasting activity.
l Young people tend to
be less agreeable and
less conscientious than
older ones. Be tolerant of
their impulsiveness and
selfishness – they will
become more
co-operative with age.
TOP: ALAMY. BOTTOM RIGHT: Getty
l Men and women don’t
differ much when it
comes to personality
traits – except that
females tend to score
higher on neuroticism.
 The sunday times
What’s behind
your mask?
The face you present to the world is
controlled by five key personality traits
that are hardwired in your brain
O
ur natures can vary enormously: some of us are
just more cheerful, grumpy, hard-working, lazy
or outgoing than others. Given that our brains all
have the same component parts, how can we
account for these differences? What turns one person into
Freddie Flintoff and the next into Fred West?
Does our individual brain chemistry provide a recipe
for our personality, or do our upbringing and social
circumstances shape the person we become? In 1925, the
psychologist John Watson famously asserted:“Give me a
dozen infants, well-formed… and I’ll guarantee to take any
one at random and train him to become any type of
specialist I might select: doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-
chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief.” The notion that
all behaviour is learned, that there is no such thing as an
inherited characteristic, was especially strong after World
War II. It was the humanist view, a reaction against Nazi
theories of eugenics.
However, the idea that there are inborn characteristics human behaviour. The project to capture the entire range
is enduring in Western civilisation. In history, personality of human personality in just five words began in the 1930s,
types have been linked to the four elements: air, fire, when the psychologist Gordon Allport trawled through
earth and water. From the Greeks to the Elizabethans, dictionaries and came up with 4,500 adjectives that describe
phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine and choleric people. The advent of information technology meant that
personalities were recognised – and often satirised. The the words could eventually be fed into computers that were
word personality stems from the Latin persona, the word capable of analysing the words for trends. Out of this, the
for masks worn by actors in early drama. These provided Big Five “super factors” have emerged: neuroticism,
clues to the behaviour – such as smiling or frowning – by extroversion,openness,agreeablenessandconscientiousness
which an actor’s character could be recognised. (see brain box, above right).
Today, the word “personality” refers to predictable The five traits are dimensional, meaning that an
behaviour patterns known as traits, by which others individual’s characteristics can be plotted on a numerical
recognise us as ourselves. The current psychological model scale, to reveal their overall personality type (see quiz,
is of five key personality factors. These are known as the Big below). There is now a near-agreement among
Five, and between them they account for all varieties of psychologists that personality is determined half by nature,
half by nurture. There are no simple correspondences
between a physical component and a type of behaviour:
no sociability gene, no fat gene, no rape gene. But there
Did you know? are genes that interact with the complex landscape of our
Psychopathic characteristics – environment to produce the people that we are.
including aggressiveness with charm, Scientists are working to understand the genetic and
manipulation and lack of empathy – are physical contribution to personality. According to Dr
more widespread than previously thought. Pierce Howard, each big-five factor has its own “arousal
According to psychologist Paul Babiak, as many system”, a complex combination of physical factors that
as 1% of the population may share these traits. Some create a threshold at which an individual switches certain
will become high-fliers, while others might end up behaviours off or on. For example, the arousal system for
committing fraud, embezzlement or worse. neuroticism is based on part of the nervous system that is
involved in the “fight or flight” response to threats. Its
threshold is the point where stress disrupts a calm state of
cerebral-cortex (thinking brain) activity, and switches it to
a nervous state of limbic (emotional brain) activity.
A genetic marker for negative emotions has also been
found: people with copies of the SERT gene – which
you really are — and how to make the most of yourself

brain box: basic instincts

What kind of people possess high and low levels of
the Big Five personality traits?
Neuroticism
High: anxious, hostile, depressed, self-conscious
Low: calm, laid back, not prone to mood swings
Extroversion
High: warm, gregarious, assertive, active
Low: solitary, shy, uncommunicative
Openness
High: creative, moved by art, sensitive, tolerant
Low: conservative, unimaginative, likes routine
Agreeableness
High: trusting, altruistic, co-operative, modest
Low: rude, feels little empathy, cold, callous
Conscientiousness
High: competent, orderly, motivated, self-disciplined
Low: untidy, disorganised, cuts corners, slapdash

The openness trait is linked to genes for novelty-seeking.

Hidden agenda the five traits
determine not just how happy
or sad you are, but also how
much emotion you reveal
affects serotonin – score higher in tests for anxiety, hostility,
depression, pessimism and fear of uncertainty.
The peripheral nervous system – the maze of nerves
sprouting from the spinal cord and reaching out through
the rest of the body – is linked to extroversion. The
threshold for extroversion is when someone has
experienced too much sensory stimulation. Extroverts
can take more stimulation; introverts need less.
The threshold depends on brain chemicals such
as dopamine. People with higher levels of dopamine get
more pleasure from novel events; those with lower levels
find pleasure in the familiar.
Agreeableness is related to sex hormones, because they
affect a person’s liking for dominance or nurture, challenge
or submission. It is also linked to the bonding hormone
oxytocin and the aggressive forces of testosterone.
Finally, the fifth trait of conscientiousness is tied to brain
systems that help us pay attention and maintain focus.
For example, higher levels of testosterone may mean
greater perseverance at tasks and more time spent learning
new skills. While a “procrastination” gene, the D2 gene,
which controls dopamine production, turns hard-working
monkeys into lazy layabouts.
n To find out more about your personality, take the Big
Five personality test below.

How do you score in the Big Five personality test?

Choose a number between 1. Eager 5 4 3 2 1 Calm 14. Warm 5 4 3 2 1 Cold
each pair of words (right) to 2. Prefer others 5 4 3 2 1 Prefer alone 15. Focused 5 4 3 2 1 Distracted
show which describes you 3. A Dreamer 5 4 3 2 1 No-nonsense 16. Embarrassed 5 4 3 2 1 Don’t care

© Jossey-Bass. Reprinted with the permission of Pierce J Howard

best. If they apply equally,
choose the middle number
4. Courteous 5 4 3 2 1 Abrupt
5. Neat 5 4 3 2 1 Messy
6. Cautious 5 4 3 2 1 Confident
7. Optimistic 5 4 3 2 1 Pessimistic
8. Theoretical 5 4 3 2 1 Practical
9. Generous 5 4 3 2 1 Selfish
10. Decisive 5 4 3 2 1 Open-ended
11. Discouraged 5 4 3 2 1 Upbeat
12. Exhibitionist 5 4 3 2 1 Private
13. Imagination 5 4 3 2 1 Authority
17. Outgoing 5 4 3 2 1 Cool
18. Seek novelty 5 4 3 2 1 Seek routine
19. Team player 5 4 3 2 1 Independent
20. Order 5 4 3 2 1 Chaos
21. Distractible 5 4 3 2 1 Unflappable
22. Conversation 5 4 3 2 1 Thoughtful
23. Ambiguity 5 4 3 2 1 Clear-cut
24. Trusting 5 4 3 2 1 Sceptical
25. On time 5 4 3 2 1 Procrastinate

How TO score
Neuroticism: add your
scores for questions 1, 6, 11,
16 and 21. Write the total
here: N ____
Extroversion: questions 2, 7,
12, 17 and 22. E ____
Openness: questions 3, 8, 13,
18 and 23. O ____
Agreeableness: questions
4, 9, 14, 19 and 24. A ____
Conscientiousness:
questions 5, 10, 15, 20
and 25. C ____
What your scores
say about you
Neuroticism: a score
of between 5-13 is low,
from14-16 is medium and
between 17-25 is high.
Extroversion: low 5-13,
medium 14-18, high 19-25. 20-25. Now go to the Brain
Openness: low 5-12, Box (top right), which
medium 13-16, high 17-25. contains further information
Agreeableness: low 5-16, about the Big Five
medium 17-20, high 21-25. personality traits, and what
Conscientiousness: low it means to possess high or
5-14, medium 15-19, high low levels of each.
your brain: how to use it 
 3. Gender and the brain: if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, which planet are you on ­—
sex and sensibility
Why is it that men and women find each other’s behaviour
so baffling? The answers are all in the mind
A
re men really from Mars and women
from Venus, so very different that they
might be living on separate planets?
Are there actually biological
differences between men’s and women’s brains?
In fact there are numerous ways in which
their brain structures vary. The female brain, for
FAR RIGHT: ALAMY/GETTY. TOP: VICTORIA ROSE/WWW.VICTORIAROSE.ME.UK. QUIZ, FAR RIGHT, EXTRACTED FROM the reader’s digest, an adapted version From THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BY SIMON BARON-COHEN (PENGUIN PRESS, £8.99)
instance, has a thicker corpus callosum – the
bundle of neurons that connects the brain’s left
and right hemispheres – and women’s brain-cell
nuclei are up to eight times larger than men’s.
Men’s brains are roughly 15% larger than
women’s, but the neurons in women’s brains are
more densely packed. The latest study shows
that male brains have 2 billion more neurons
than female brains, but females have more of the
substance that dendrites, axons and synapses are
made of, meaning that their brain cells
communicate better with each other.
Emotion activates both hemispheres in the
female brain but only the right hemisphere in
the male. Emotional activation is linked to verbal
response areas in the female brain, but to action
and physical response areas in the male. The
upshot of these structural differences is that
female and male brains are hardwired differently
– the typical male brain for “doing” and pursuing
goal-related action and the female brain for
“talking” or nurturing relationships.
The male “doer” develops traits such as
aggressiveness,competitivenessandself-reliance.
These features are all highly correlated with
testosterone levels, whether in males or females,
and with a high degree of competence in solving
maths and spatial problems. The female “talker”,
meanwhile, excels in language, sensory
brain box: battle of the cortexes
Males
Better at chess
Have more tunnel vision, but better
depth and perspective
Take more interest in objects
Have right hemisphere larger than left
Favour right ear
Solve maths problems non verbally
Handle multi-tasking more easily
Use less eye contact
Have a shorter attention span
Are more sensation-seeking
React slowly to pain
At pre-school, take 36 seconds to say goodbye
 The sunday times
awareness, memory, social awareness and
relationships. One recent review of research
found that women utter 20,000 words a day on
average, compared to men’s 7,000. Researchers
have suggested that this can be partly explained
by the freer inter-hemisphere communication
afforded by a thicker corpus callosum.
The separation in male brains of language
function in the left hemisphere and emotional
activity in the right is seen as a possible
explanation for men’s ineptness in talking about
feelings. The female has the advantage of
emotion in both hemispheres and so enjoys more
connections between language and emotion.
Concentration of an activity in a particular
part of the brain seems to lead to superiority in
certain skills. Women excel in language, which
engages only the front of the left hemisphere.
In males, language activates both the front and
back of the left hemisphere. Likewise, visual
and spatial perception involves only the right
hemisphere in men, but both in women.
The key to male/female differentiation may
lie in our mothers’ hormone levels during
pregnancy. Animal experiments certainly
support this theory. If a pregnant rhesus monkey,
for example, is injected with testosterone, its
female offspring will exhibit male traits such as
aggressive play or mounting. behave as if they have male brains have higher
It is important to understand that sex testosterone levels.
differences are based on the average man or The neuropsychologist Doreen Kimura has
woman, and do not determine the characteristics found a relationship between body asymmetry
of an individual. Women can have male- and gender-differentiated behaviour. She claims
differentiated brains, and vice versa. Studies show that men with larger right testicles and women
that men who behave as if they have female brains with larger right breasts tend to exhibit more
have lower testosterone levels, while women who typically masculine behaviour, whereas men
with larger left testicles and women with larger
left breasts tend to exhibit more typically
feminine behaviour. Again, hormones are key.
Females Variations in androgens (male sex hormones)
Better at foreign languages and oestrogens (female sex hormones), as the
Have wider peripheral vision for embryo develops, can affect both body
the big picture asymmetry and the degree and direction of
More interested in people/faces gender differentiation in the brain. Hormone
Have left hemisphere larger than right levels can be altered in utero by, among other
Listen equally with both ears things, chromosome mutations, sustained stress
Tend to talk while solving maths problems and vigorous exercise.
Less at ease with multi-tasking Our sexual make-up is as complex as our
Use more eye contact sexual biology, and it is wise to separate sexual
Have a longer attention span identity (whether we feel like a man or woman,
Are less sensation-seeking regardless of the body we occupy), sexual
React more quickly but have better tolerance orientation (who we fancy) and sexual behaviour
of long-term pain (the extent to which we behave like a man or a
At pre-school, take 93 seconds to say goodbye woman). These three elements are independent
of each other and can occur in any combination
or are you caught between both worlds? Do you have a male
or female brain?
Do you have a male “systematising” brain that
Sexual inequality research has found that typically wants to find out how things work? Or do you
men are better at chess; women at languages have a female “empathising” brain that tries
to identify others’ emotions? It’s not only
can be altered? The short answer is: on rather down to your gender: one in ten women has
shaky ground. Researchers may disagree about a “male-type” brain. Answer the questions
the point at which sexual orientation is fixed – below to see which type of brain you have
some argue for the fifth month of gestation, while
others opt for two to four years – but what most 1. When someone map reading?
scientists now agree on is that we don’t choose gets upset, can you A) Quite hard.
whether we are straight or gay. Being homosexual see why? B) Very easy.
or heterosexual is, it seems, as natural as having A) Yes, usually 9. How do you
straight or curly hair. quite quickly. generally feel in
Though hormone levels also influence the B) No, I often social situations?
extent to which we behave like men or women, feel at sea. A) Comfortable. B)
here it is the environment, not biology, that takes 2. If you were I often feel like leaving.
centre stage. Children learn the behaviour buying a car, 1O. How organised is
appropriate to a particular sex very young. Little would you want your CD collection?
boys’ play tends to feature dominance and specific details A) Not at all. B) Highly.
hierarchies, while girls’ play features stable, equal about its 11. If there was a
social relationships. Cowboys and Indians are engine? problem with the
pitched against mummies and daddies. The A) Not really. wiring in your home,
psychologist Eleanor Maccoby argues that there B) Definitely. what would you do?
are strong evolutionary reasons for the difference, 3. How important A) Get someone
and that our survival has traditionally been based are your else to fix it. B) Try to
on the competitive stance of all-male groups and relationships? fix it myself.
the co-operative stance of all-female groups. A) Very important. 12. How did you feel
That girls are more interested than boys in B) Not a high priority. in maths lessons
building long-term relationships with others is 4. When doing DIY, do at school?
backed by evidence that, from birth, girls you cut corners to get A) I was bored. B)
maintain longer eye contact than boys. From the job done? I was intrigued by the
infancy, girls also have a superior memory for A) Yes. B) No, I’m rules governing
faces and more sympathy for other distressed always meticulous. numbers.
infants than boys do. Baby girls are also twice as 5. How easy would 13. What do you think
responsive as boys when their mother talks. Boys, you find it to explain when you watch the
however, show a greater willingness to take risks. something to weather forecast?
Did you know? Interestingly, when boys are presented with novel someone else if they A) Bored by
Males that have high objects, they pay more attention to them and hadn’t understood the details.
testosterone levels are 50% remember more of their physical details; while it the first time? B) Interested in the
less likely to marry, according to girls pay more attention to, and remember more A) Very easy. meteorological
American researchers who found that about, the reaction of other people to the objects. B) Quite difficult. patterns.
air-force servicemen with above- Men and women may not be from different 6. What do you prefer 14. Describe
average testosterone levels had worlds – but their brains make them look very to read? your attitude
difficulty staying in a couple. differently at the world they share. A) Features about when you’re
Key differences in male and female brains: relationships. having a
n Women perform maths tasks better in the first B) Articles that are discussion.
half of their menstrual cycle. For verbal tasks, fact-based. A) I can tell
they perform better in the second half. 7. Can you tell if quickly if I’m
so, for example, a male can see himself as female, n When men take maths tests, they perform someone wants to putting my
be attracted to females and yet act like a male. better in the morning. They do better at verbal join in a point across
Sexual orientation is also now considered to have tasks later in the day. conversation? too forcefully.
a strong genetic or biological basis. The latest n Boys need more, and earlier, practice than A) I find it easy. B) I’m sometimes
evidence is that homosexuality runs in families. girls in the phonics approach to reading. B) I find it quite hard. unsure when
In addition, the INAH-3 – part of the brain’s n To improve their maths, girls need more 8. How do you find enough is enough.
hypothalamus, which is associated with training to visualise a problem. They tend to
emotional arousal and major biological drives – is verbalise it. How did you score? If you circled more
of equal size in women and homosexual men, but n Brightly lit areas are more fatiguing for females As than Bs (with a difference of more than 3),
twice as large in heterosexual men. Homosexual and dimly lit areas more fatiguing for males. you have a female brain. If, however, you
men also have fewer neurons in the INAH-3 n Males like more space between themselves circled more Bs than As (with a difference of
than heterosexual men, yet more than women. and other males than females like between more than 3), you have a male brain. If, on the
So where does all this leave those that argue themselves and other females. other hand, you circled a similar number of As
that sexual orientation is a lifestyle choice that n Females have a more sensitive sense of smell. and Bs, you have a balanced brain.
your brain: how to use it 
 4. Your emotions: why you should listen to your heart as well as your head – and ditch the stiff upper lip

mind over mood

Emotions are no longer seen as the poor cousins of reason, but
it is still worth training your brain to govern unruly feelings

E
motions were once considered too
nebulous for serious scientific study.
How could the giddy joy of love or the
burning anger of betrayal possibly be
pinned down? Then, in the 1960s, psychologist
Paul Ekman made the study of emotion
respectable. He identified six basic human
emotions – anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise
and joy – and proved that faces expressing these
six emotions were recognised across the globe.
For centuries, emotion was seen as the messy
flip side of reason, and only associated with the
heart, not the brain. But while Ekman looked
for the emotions in the face, neuropsychologists
are now scouring the brain for them and
mapping specific emotions on to particular areas.
Fear is one of the most studied emotions –
as when fear is not properly regulated anxiety
disorders develop and depression can set in.
In fact, the emotions are now seen as being
at the core of many psychiatric disorders. We now
know that fear depends on specific circuits in the
brain that terminate in the amygdala – an area
within the medial temporal lobes believed to be
crucial to our emotional reactions, emotional
learning and processing emotional memories.
Disgust is located in the brain’s basal ganglia,
an area involved in motor control. Interestingly,
obsessive-compulsive disorder,which is associated
with excessive reactions to things that cause
disgust, also involves a disturbance of the basal
ganglia. A pleasure centre seems to exist in the
median forebrain bundle parallel to a pain centre,
which runs from the hindbrain to the forebrain.
The localising of fear, disgust, pleasure and
pain is promising – but nothing about emotion-
to-brain mapping is yet set in stone. The
amygdala, for example, has been characterised
as the “rage centre”, but while surgical removal
of the amygdala can eliminate rage, it can
also lead to bizarre eating patterns and unusual
sexual behaviours.
If the same site in the same brain is stimulated
at different times, different emotions can be
produced. Hormone levels influence emotional
intensity, and neurotransmitter levels affect
which emotions individuals are prone to. High
melatonin, for example, leads to depression and
low melatonin to high sexual appetite.
Neurologist António Damásio argues that
emotion is actually a vital part of rational decision
making. Studying people whose “reasoning” brain
in the frontal lobe was severed from their
emotional responses in the amygdala, he found
that their IQs were normal but that they were
unable to plan or make rational decisions.
The rest of us use emotional memories tied
to past experiences to help us decide about the
future. The days of the stiff upper lip are over:
emotions are nothing to be ashamed of.

Is your glass half-full or half-empty?

We all experience both positive and
negative emotions. To discover your
emotional profile, read each word (right)
and write an answer from 1 to 5. Base it
on the way you have felt in the past week.
How to rate your answers
1 Slightly/Never 2 A little
3 Moderately 4 Frequently 5 Extremely
__interested (PA) __irritable (NA) __hostile (NA)
__jittery (NA) __enthusiastic (PA) __active (PA)
__proud (PA) __afraid (NA) __distressed (NA)
__alert (PA) __excited (PA) __ashamed (NA)
__upset (NA) __inspired (PA) __strong (PA)
__nervous (NA) __guilty (NA) __determined (PA)
__scared (NA) __attentive (PA)

sCoring
Add your ten positive-affect
(PA) scores and your ten
negative-affect (NA) scores
separately. You will arrive at
two scores from 10 to 50.
HOW DID YOU SCORE?
PA (positive) score
Includes such feelings as joy,
sociability and enthusiasm,
10-19 Very low; if this goes on
for several weeks it could
indicate depression.
20-42 You are feeling
average levels of positivity.
43-50 Unless your positive
mood leads you to take
foolish risks, then enjoy it.
NA (negative) score
Includes such feelings
as anger, fear or sadness.
10-25 Normal; 80% of
people score in this range.
26-32 Moderately high
levels of negativity; may
signal that something
unpleasant has occurred.
33+ Highly negative. You may
benefit from talking to your GP.
WHAT DIFFERENT
COMBINATIONS MEAN
The norm
Moderately high PA, low NA.
High PA and high NA
This could mean either you
have had an “up and down”
week, or that you are a highly
emotional person who reacts
strongly, both positively and
negatively, to events in your
life – or both. Generally
speaking, a high PA is good
and a high NA is not great –
except in short bursts. It
wouldn’t be normal to never
feel angry or sad, but
dwelling on negative
emotions is not productive.
However, a high PA could
counteract a high NA score.
Low PA and low NA
This most likely means
that you are generally
unemotional – or that you’ve
had a pretty boring week!

10 The sunday times

for six other facial expressions BRAIN WAVES

How to keep control of your emotions — and

avoid being controlled by them
l Your reaction to cells). This intensifies
a situation is both our emotional
cognitive (reasoned) response.
and emotional. l Exercise regularly.
You can make a Stress releases the
conscious decision hormone
not to allow cortisol, which
emotion to increases your
dominate. blood pressure,
l Take and aerobic
note exercise

LEFT: getty. CENTRE: CHENNA/WWW.SYNERGYART.CO.UK. Bottom right: CORBIS. CENTRE RIGHT: empics. TOP RIGHT: getty. THE PANAS SCALES, BOTTOM LEFT, BY WATSON, CLARK AND TELLEGEN (1988) © THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
of the dissipates it.
circum- l Beat
stances negative
that trigger feelings of
About face Humans all reveal six your emotions. failure by making
basic emotions: joy, surprise, fear, Spotting a list of your
sadness, anger and disgust patterns can achievements. Focus
help you gain on the positive and
control. things will fall into
l Anger should perspective.
be dealt with as l Turn your sadness
quickly and calmly as into something
possible. Try writing positive — try
down the causes to writing about it or
eliminate it, exercising commemorating it.
or meditating. Bottling l Tackle loneliness
anger up and by spending time
venting it are both with others who are
bad for the heart and lonely. Try visiting
immune system. nursing homes
l Escape from stress. or hospitals.
Diversions such as
reading, TV or music
can encourage our
rational (cortical)

Is feeling bad good for you?

system to take over
from our emotional
(limbic) system.
l Get enough sleep.

T
he sad fact about human emotions
is that most of them are unpleasant.
Of the six basic human emotions,
four – anger, disgust, fear and sadness
– are negative; one is neutral – surprise; and only
one – joy – is positive. The four negative
emotions also tend to last longer than joy, which
is usually a fleeting emotion. But the purpose of
unpleasant emotions is to spur us on to change
situations that cause us pain.
According to evolutionary psychologists,
particular emotions have persisted in generations
of people because they are adaptive; they have
helped us to survive. Negative emotions probably
evolved as an early-warning system that
something bad was happening, and to precipitate
an automatic course of action that would aid our
survival. So fear told us we were in danger; anger
prompted us to scare off our aggressors; sadness
warned us to be cautious; and disgust to avoid
contamination. On the other hand, happiness is a
force that promotes the status quo, telling us that Poor sleep patterns
things are going well; it may be a holy grail now, can affect the levels
but it didn’t figure urgently in the past. of our hormones l If none of these
The tendency to react to bad news serves us and neurotransmitters self-help attempts
badly in the modern age, according to the positive (the chemicals at emotional
psychologist Professor Martin Seligman:“Because that relay electrical regulation do the
our brains evolved during a time of ice, flood and signals between trick, then it’s time
famine, we have catastrophic brains. The way neurons and other to consult a doctor.
the brain works is to look for what’s wrong. The
problem is, that worked in the Pleistocene era, but
it doesn’t work in the modern world.”
The modern epidemic of stress has been
given an evolutionary spin. Many of us are
primed by genes that evolved to fit conditions in
the Stone Age, to overreact to threats. Thus we
behave over emotionally in a modern world
where we have many minor hassles but rarely
face real danger. The challenge today is to keep
negative emotions in check, learn to feel more
happiness and maintain a positive outlook.
n Try the quiz, left, to find out how positive you are
your brain: how to use it 11
 5. In the brain scientist’s lab: locating the pleasure zone inside our skulls
Head start
Rat-testing experiments led to the
discovery of the brain’s reward centre
— and help for human addicts
T
he brain’s pleasure centre was
discovered by a scientist in the 1950s
who wanted to make rats happy.
Experiments had already shown
that rats disliked having particular parts of their
brains electrically stimulated. The psychologist
James Olds was curious to know if there
were corresponding areas in rats’ brains where
stimulation was enjoyable.
Olds implanted a tiny electrode into a rat’s
midbrain and, whenever the rodent moved to a
particular corner of a box, the psychologist sent
a small electric current into the electrode. To his
amazement, the rat kept returning for more. In
further experiments, it was shown that the rodent
preferred electrical stimulation to food even
when hungry. When left to administer its own
electric shocks, the rat pressed the stimulating
trigger every five seconds and didn’t want to stop.
This discovery of the brain’s “reward” system
has been hailed as one of the most important in
physiological psychology. It spurred the
psychiatrist Robert Heath to locate the pleasure
centre in humans in a series of controversial
studies in the 1960s. Heath electrically stimulated
the brains of people suffering from conditions
such as schizophrenia, as well as those of gay
people – homosexuality was then thought
to be a psychiatric disorder. He hoped to lessen
their “problems” by flooding them with
Illusion Break from the Psychobox, redstone press, 2004. top: kobal. bottom right: richard kalvar/magnum
mind bender
Move your eyes around this grid and black dots
magically appear, then disappear, in the white
circles. This illusion is intensified with increased
eye movements and reduced as you focus on a
single circle. This effect is an aspect of the relation
between peripheral vision and central focus.
pleasurable
sensations. Heath
implanted an
electrode into the
brain’s “reward centre”
in a gay patient and let
the man press a button to
send electric shocks to his brain.
Over three hours, the man pressed it
1,500 times and “experienced an almost
overwhelming euphoria, and had to be
disconnected despite his protests”.
Heath then showed the man heterosexual
pornography and again allowed him to administer
himself a shock. Suddenly the man found women
desirable. However this turned out to be a
temporary conversion; and, in the end, the
method did not provide Heath’s patients with any
long-term benefit: feelings of euphoria would
wane almost as soon as the current was cut off.
Later studies have pinpointed the reward
centre to the medial forebrain bundle. This area
Afterthought: Laughter
When we laugh at a joke, there is more going on
behind this spontaneous response than meets
the eye. Laughing can affect the levels of
neurochemicals – the substances in our system
that carry messages in the brain. This can have a
direct effect on our immune system. Professor
Norman Cousins thought that a sense of humour
could be an important influence on the immune
system. But laughter and humour are not the
same. Laughter is more physiological, and has
been found in many species. Yet humour seems
to be a feature specific to humans.
Cousins showed cardiac patients 30 minutes
of comedy every day for a year. The results
Strap happy the discovery
of the brain’s reward system
was a major breakthrough
communicates using dopamine, which plays a
crucial role in our mental and physical health.
Olds’ work has also been central to scientific
understanding of the biological basis of addiction.
Highly addictive drugs, such as amphetamines,
are thought to cause a greater-than-normal
dopamine release,flooding the brain synapses and
giving the user extreme highs. The euphoric
feelings are strengthened with each exposure,
leading to uncontrollable cravings. New research
into ways to help addicts quit has recently
focused on blocking the activity of the chemical
neurotransmitter, thereby eliminating the
dopamine high to break the cycle of drug use.
were staggering:
enhanced
respiration, an
increased number
of immune cells,
lower blood pressure
and fewer repeat heart
attacks were all noted.
Yet not all types of humour are helpful.
Women tend to lower their blood pressure by
laughing about stressful situations, but the
opposite is true of men: their blood pressure
often rises because they tend to have a less self-
depricating, more aggressive type of humour.
your brain: how to use it 12