The Difference Between Men and Women's Brains Revealed?

In an attempt to better understand the differences between the brains of men and women, scientists scanned the brains of 949 young men and women in the biggest investigation of its kind thus far.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that the female brain is "hard-wired" to be better at multi-tasking, while men are better at concentrating on single, complex activities.

Undated handout photo issued by National Academy of Sciences of brain networks showing significantly increased within hemispheres in males (upper) and between hemispheres in females (lower). (Caption via the Daily Mail)

Women everywhere are probably nodding their heads in approval and muttering "I told you so" under their breath, but there is also some advantages found in the male brain.

Using "hi-tech diffusion MRI imaging," scientists mapped the connections between different parts of the brain and discovered that women have much better connections between the left and right sides of the brain. However, men showed more activity within the brain's individual parts, particularly in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor skills.

Motor skills would include things like parking a car, learning to ride a bike and reading a map.

More from the Daily Mail:

Men also have better connections between the front and back of the brain, giving them a better ability to quickly perceive information and use it immediately to carry out complex tasks.

This means they are better at things such as learning to swim or, as the old bone of contention has it, parking a car. Women are better at, for example, remembering a face, which means making connections between different parts of the brain.

The results are likely to be seen as  supporting the theory behind best-selling pop psychology book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus – that the sexes are as different as alien races.

Of course, no study is perfect and there will certainly be individuals whose brain functioning appear at odds with the findings of the research.

Dr. Ragini Verma told the Daily Mail that she and her colleagues wanted to see "what would the male brain look like and what would the female brain look like" if 1,000 people were analyzed.

"The research shows that if women and men are given a task that involves both logical thinking and intuitive thinking, women will do it better – they are better at connecting the left and the right sides of the brain," she added.

The study included 428 men and 521 females between the ages of 8 and 22.

–

[related]