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Females are more like to suffer from depression while males on the hand
are more likely to suffer from autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder, conduct disorder, specific language impairment
“This is important, as many mental illnesses are more common in one sex over the
other and we still don’t understand why this is. Understanding this could well help
us understand some of the biological mechanisms that give rise to these illnesses,
which could then enable the development of better targeted treatments. Important
questions remain, such as whether the sexes tend to have differences in brain
chemistry and how this may relate to brain function.”
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus? New brain study says not
Heidi Johansen-Berg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Oxford University,
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/30/brain-sex-men-from-mars-women-venus-not-so-says-new-study
“In general, boys have more difficulties than girls. They’re more likely to experience mental
retardation, dyslexia, stuttering, and behavior problems than girls. Color blindness is found
among about 8 percent of males but only 0.5 percent of females. Autism is five times more
common in boys than girls. ADHD is three times more common. Hemophilia affects one in
five thousand males but almost no females.Some of this can be explained by chromosomes.
Men have an X and a Y chromosome. Women have two copies of the X. Girls have fewer
disorders carried on the X chromosome because they have a spare.”
-Sex Matters: How Modern feminism lost touch with science, love, and common sense by Mona Charen
These biological differences seem to have consequences for mental health. An article in the
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review points to well-known differences between men and
women in susceptibility to mental disorders: “Examples of male-biased conditions include
autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, specific language
impairment, Tourette syndrome, and dyslexia, and examples of female-biased
conditions include depression, anxiety disorder, and anorexia nervosa.”
--Ruigrok et al., “A meta-analysis of sex differences in human brain structure,” 35.”
“This is important, as many mental illnesses are more common in one sex over
the other and we still don’t understand why this is. Understanding this could
well help us understand some of the biological mechanisms that give rise to
these illnesses, which could then enable the development of better targeted
treatments. Important questions remain, such as whether the sexes tend to have
differences in brain chemistry and how this may relate to brain function.”
Acknowledging sex-based differences is vital for women’s health, as
Jill Goldstein and colleagues emphasize in a paper for Frontiers in
Neuroscience. “We now know there are significant sex differences in
many chronic diseases, including brain disorders,” they write, so
understanding the causes of these differences “is critical to
understanding women’s mental health and healthcare needs.”
--Jill M. Goldstein et al., “Fetal hormonal programming of sex differences in depression: linking women’s mental health with sex differences in
the brain across the lifespan,” Frontiers in Neuroscience 8 (September 2014), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157606/.”
They cite studies demonstrating, for example, that “the
vulnerability for sex-dependent risk for MDD [major depressive
disorder] begins in fetal development” (their italics).
Neuroscience must therefore “adopt a ‘sex-dependent’ and/or
‘sex-specific’ lens on investigations of the brain.”
--Jill M. Goldstein et al., “Fetal hormonal programming of sex differences in depression: linking women’s mental health with sex differences in
the brain across the lifespan,” Frontiers in Neuroscience 8 (September 2014), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157606/.”
A literature review in the Journal of Cellular Physiology tells us
that “men are able to synthesize serotonin, the
neurotransmitter commonly associated with
pleasant moods, at a greater rate than women,” and
therefore men have a lower incidence of major depression, anxiety,
and multiple sclerosis, but a higher incidence of attention deficit
hyperactive disorder and coronary artery disease.
-Rigby and Kulathinal, “Genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism in humans,” 2304.
There are also differences in susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease
and dementia. While scientists don’t know how much of these
differences are due to environment and how much to biology, they
do know that “innate physiological differences between
males and females may play a large role in sex
differences in disease onset, susceptibility,
prevalence, and treatment responses.”
-Rigby and Kulathinal, “Genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism in humans,” 2036, 2304.
Men and women also tend to respond differently to pain, which has
important implications for the use of painkillers and other medicines. Men
and women have “variable responses to pharmacological agents and the
initiation and manifestation of diseases such as obesity, autoimmune
disorders, and coronary heart disease, to name a few.”
--Institute of Medicine, Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health, 7.
DEBRA SOH .PHD. NEUROSEXISM
In the study, the researchers found that females displayed greater connectivity in the supratentorial region,
which contains the cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, between the left and right hemispheres. Males,
on the other hand, displayed greater connectivity within each hemisphere.
By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a major role in motor
control, where males displayed greater inter-hemispheric connectivity and females displayed greater intra-
hemispheric connectivity.
These connections likely give men an efficient system for coordinated action, where the cerebellum and
cortex participate in bridging between perceptual experiences in the back of the brain, and action, in the
front of the brain, according to the authors. The female connections likely facilitate integration of the
analytic and sequential processing modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive information
processing modes of the right side.
The authors observed only a few gender differences in the connectivity in
children younger than 13 years, but the differences were more pronounced in
adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and young adults older than 17.
The findings were also consistent with a Penn behavior study, of which this
imaging study was a subset of, that demonstrated pronounced sexual
differences. Females outperformed males on attention, word and face
memory, and social cognition tests. Males performed better on spatial
processing and sensorimotor speed. Those differences were most
pronounced in the 12 to 14 age range.
Neural map of a typical man's brain. Photograph: National Academy of Sciences/PA
Neural map of a typical woman's brain.
Photograph: National Academy of Sciences/PA
Neural map of a
Neural map of a typical woman's
typical man's brain. Photograph:
brain. Photograph: National Academy
National Academy of Sciences/PA
of Sciences/PA
Maps of neural circuitry showed that on average women's brains were highly
connected across the left and right hemispheres, in contrast to men's brains, where
the connections were typically stronger between the front and back regions.
Neural map of a typical man's brain. Photograph: Neural map of a typical woman's brain. Photograph:
National Academy of Sciences/PA National Academy of Sciences/PA
"If you look at functional studies, the left of the brain is more for logical
thinking, the right of the brain is for more intuitive thinking. So if there's
a task that involves doing both of those things, it would seem that
women are hardwired to do those better," Verma said.
Neural map of a typical man's brain. Photograph: Neural map of a typical woman's brain. Photograph:
National Academy of Sciences/PA National Academy of Sciences/PA
Verma said. "Women are better at intuitive thinking. Women are better
at remembering things. When you talk, women are more emotionally
involved – they will listen more.” She added: "I was surprised that it
matched a lot of the stereotypes that we think we have in our heads.
If I wanted to go to a chef or a hairstylist, they are mainly men."
Neural map of a
Neural map of a typical woman's
typical man's brain. Photograph:
brain. Photograph: National Academy
National Academy of Sciences/PA
of Sciences/PA
"It's quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are," Ruben Gur, a
co-author on the study, said in a statement. "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."
Women have more acute senses of smell, touch, and hearing, and
“
see better in the dark.” -Moir and Jessel, Brain Sex, 100.
“Women are more sensitive to acute pain but are better able to
handle longterm discomfort than men. Women’s brains are denser
than men’s in the centers that regulate hearing and language. The
hippocampus, the center for governing emotion and memory, is
larger in women.” -Brizendine, The Female Brain, 5.
“Men’s brains are also more compartmentalized than women’s. In
the 1960s, Dr. Herbert Lansdell, a Maryland psychologist, studied
epileptics who had had parts of their brains removed to help them
cope with extreme seizures. ” -Sex Matters: How Modern feminism lost
touch with science, love, and common sense by Mona Charen
“He noticed that when one particular brain part was removed from
men’s brains, they lost nearly all their capacity for spatial reasoning.
Women did not, which indicated to Lansdell that spatial relations skills
are located in one particular part of the male brain but in several places
in the female brain. ” -Sex Matters: How Modern feminism lost touch with science, love, and common sense by Mona Charen
“Also, women use both sides of their brains for tasks, whereas men’s
brains are more specialized, with tasks performed predominantly by
either the left or the right hemisphere. ” -Sex Matters: How Modern feminism
lost touch with science, love, and common sense by Mona Charen
“This is important, as many mental illnesses are more common in one sex over
the other and we still don’t understand why this is. Understanding this could
well help us understand some of the biological mechanisms that give rise to
these illnesses, which could then enable the development of better targeted
treatments. Important questions remain, such as whether the sexes tend to have
differences in brain chemistry and how this may relate to brain function.”
“There is evidence that the male brain is more lateral, and divides tasks
between its two hemispheres, whereas the female brain is less likely to
divide tasks between its two hemispheres (McGlone 1980; Ellis et al.
2008, p. 84). This means when a man puts his mind to work, brain
scans (fMRIs) show neurons activated in highly specific areas.”
The right
hemisphere The left
organizes and hemisphere
myelinates from begins to
about age 4 ½ myelination
through age 7 to 10 about seven in
in girls and through girls and age nine
age 10-12 in boys. in boys.
FEMALES HEARS BETTER THAN MALES
“In the brain centres for language and hearing, women have 11% more neurons than
men”(Brizendine. “The Female Brain” 5) “Females not only hear better, but can discern between a
broader range of emotional tones in the human voice. This is probably because of BABIES! Women
evolved to be nurturers, so hearing & interpreting their infant's cries is kind of an important skill.
And it's a skill we're born with: a study of infants on the day of their birth showed that girls will
respond more to the cries of another baby than boys.” (Brizendine. “The Female Brain” 17)
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
“Men and women really don't see eye to eye, according to a new study. Females are
better at discriminating among colors, researchers say, In color experiments the men and
women tended to ascribe different shades to the same objects. While males excel at
tracking fast-moving objects and discerning detail from a distance.”
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
“Across most of the visible spectrum males require a slightly longer wavelength
than do females in order to experience the same hue," the team concludes in the
latest issue of the journal Biology of Sex Differences.
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
“Since longer wavelengths are associated with "warmer" colors, an
orange, for example, may appear redder to a man than to a woman.
Likewise, the grass is almost always greener to women than to men,
to whom verdant objects appear a bit yellower.”
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
Noting that men in the study showed "significantly greater sensitivity for
fine detail and for rapidly moving stimuli," the researchers write that their
hunter forebears "would have to detect possible predators or prey from afar
and also identify and categorize these objects more easily."
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
Meanwhile, the vision of female "gatherers" may have become better adapted
recognizing close-at-hand, static objects such as wild berries.John Barbur, professor of
optics and visual science at City University London, noted that females are often "worse
off in terms of absolute chromatic [color] sensitivity than males."
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY
But when it comes to noticing subtle differences among shades of a color, women do tend to
come out on top, as they did in Abramov's experiments, said Barbur, who wasn't part of the new
study."If you're not dealing with the absolute sensitivity for color detection but the way in which
colors are judged—such as the ability to describe a color, or what that color means, and so on,"
he said, "I'd say that females are definitely much better than males."
(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS. “Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently :
Differences may be rooted in hunting, gathering.” BY JAMES OWEN)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120907-men-women-see-differently-science-health-vision-sex/
MALES AND FEMALES SEE DIFFERENTLY