“His Brain, Her Brain”

Throughout the article “His Brain, Her Brain” written by Larry Cahill, the idea that male

and female brains have different functions is shown. Using research found from Harvard

University and others, Cahill wrote this article to prove that a man's brain differs from a woman's

brain. Knowing this, I believe that he succeeds in getting his point across in this article.

To begin, we take a look at Larry Cahill. Larry Cahill is currently a professor in “the

department of neurobiology and behavior”(Cahill) at the University of California, Irvine. He

managed to obtain his PhD in neuroscience back in 1990, graduating from the University of

California. Cahills' study on the different functions men’s and women’s brains have begins with

the study of sculpting the brain. According to the research done by Jill M. Goldenstein and

colleagues, “ investigators found that parts of the frontal cortex, the seat of many higher

cognitive functions, are bulkier in women than in men, as are parts of the limbic cortex, which is

involved in emotional responses''(Cahill). This in itself is a key factor in the difference a man's

brain has compared to a woman, which is what he is trying to prove. The research used from Jill

M. Goldenstein, a professor of “psychiatry and medicine” at Harvard Medical School, states that

“In men, on the other hand, parts of the parietal cortex, which is involved in space perception,

are bigger than in women, as is the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure that responds to

emotionally arousing information—to anything that gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline

flowing”(Cahill). Using just information gathered from Sculpting the Brain Larry Cahil is able to

inform the readers that off the bat there are noticeable changes between a man and a womens

brain, that being the influence sex has towards the brain.
 Behavioral studies also share evidence that young boys and girls think differently at birth.

Experiments that supported this claim came from Melissa Hines, University of London, and

Gerianne M. Alexander of Texas A&M University. By using vert monkeys, a human's closest

relation to an animal, they found that “male monkeys spent more time playing with the

“masculine” toys than their female counterparts did, and female monkeys spent more time

interacting with the playthings typically preferred by girls”(Cahill). By using vert monkeys, the

similarities that are shared with humans can be measured, which makes this experiment ethical.

“Vervet monkeys are unlikely to be swayed by the social pressures of human culture, the results

imply that toy preferences in children result at least in part from innate biological

differences”(Cahill). According to Cahills article the use of vert monkeys essentially makes the

monkeys choice of toy unbiased, thus the monkey makes its choice based on the “anatomical sex

differences in the brain”(Cahill).

Though it's arguable that a monkey is not the same as a human, Baron-Cohen and

colleagues from Cambridge University tested the same theory, which was tested with monkeys

but instead examined infants at a maternity ward. Being oblivious to the infants sex, “they found

that the girls spent more time looking at the student, whereas the boys spent more time looking at

the mechanical object”(Cahill). Similar to the vert monkey experiment, the sex differences in the

brain escentially sway the subject to choose the toy fitting of their gender, which is what Larry

Cahill tries to prove through his article.

The use of stress between rats also draws an image showing differences. A study done by

Tracey J. Shors shows that male rats and female rats react differently to stress. “Exposure to a
series of one-second tail shocks enhanced performance of a learned task and increased the

density of dendritic connections to other neurons in male rats yet impaired performance and

decreased connection density in female rats”(Cahill). This shows that male rats are able to adapt

Usingto events while female rats struggle, though this is a test for rats which are meant to

resemble humans. Rats also share the difference of the hippocampus, “a structure crucial for

memory storage and for spatial mapping of the physical environment”(Cahill). A woman's

hippocampus is naturally bigger than a man which leads to differences in the way males and

females move. “Male rats are more likely to navigate mazes using directional and positional

information, whereas female rats are more likely to navigate the same mazes using available

landmarks”(Cahill). All data used in these experiments show that even in the brain of rats neuron

from the hippocampus behave differently from a male and female

Sex and mental disorders also have a notable difference between men and women.

According to a PET study taken from Mirko Diksic and others in McGill University, “serotonin

production was a remarkable 52 percent higher on average in men than in women, which might

help clarify why women are more prone to depression”(Cahill). From what has been analysed so

far, we know that there are definite differences between each genders' brains. The amount of

serotonin produced by a man out weighs that of a woman, which according to the research does

make women more genetically able to get depression. Along with these differences, “Women

who have schizophrenia have a decreased OAR relative to their healthy peers, as might be

expected. But men, oddly, have an increased OAR relative to healthy men''(Cahill). OAR is the

orbitofrontal-to-amygdala ratio,which helps regulate emotions. It is because of this speculation

that women can naturally control their emotional reactions better than men.
 In the end, Cahill argues that sex matters in the brain. In 2001, the National Academy of

Sciences stated,“Being male or female, is an important basic human variable that should be

considered when designing and analyzing studies in all areas and at all levels of biomedical and

health-related research”(Cahill). Today we realize that though there is no clear evidence men

have better cognitive function then women or women are better at humanities and such, there is a

natural difference between each brain since birth. Sexual reaction, emotional containment, and

natural choices are influenced by anatomical sex differences in the brain gained from birth.

Knowing this, I believe that Larry Cahill does succeed in portraying his point. Using research

from various prestigious schools and reliable researchers, Larry Cahill was able to support his

claim that a man's brain differs from a woman's brain.