Contents
Our differences in ways of perceiving, reacting and behaving, we are accustomed to explain by the action of hormones or upbringing. But science says that the basis of our dissimilarity lies in the peculiarities of the brains of men and women. And here’s the evidence.
Basic Ideas
- We differ genetically, the brain has a gender: male or female.
- Women with a male brain type (and vice versa) are not so rare.
- Only a part of our features is given to us from birth: a lot depends on our upbringing and environment.
“We have two intersections left to go, then we turn right and see the town hall building,” says Andrei, carefully studying the tourist map of the city. “Yes, I remember there was a candy store on the corner,” I easily answer him … Most of us, of course, are familiar with such situations. Men and women, we often perceive the world around us differently, we think differently, the same situations cause us opposite emotions.
Until quite recently, these differences were explained to us solely by the action of sex hormones and the style of raising boys and girls, which “forces” men and women to behave in a certain way. Today, more and more scientists are confident that the gender characteristics of perception, thinking and even behavior are primarily associated with the structure and functioning of our brain. Let’s try to figure this out.
congenital dissimilarity
In January 2005, in his public speech, Lawrence Summers, rector of Harvard University (USA), stated that men are more successful in science than women, and this may be due to the anatomical features of their brain.
From birth, we are given only a tenth of our mental abilities.
“This remark reopened a scientific discussion that began more than a century ago, when scientists, having discovered that the brain size of men is slightly larger than that of women, tried to use this fact to justify their intellectual superiority,” says Larry Cahill, a neuroscientist at the University of California ( USA).
Today there is no evidence that intellectual abilities depend solely on the structure of the brain, but something else is clear: the brain of men and women develops and functions differently.
“It differs not only in the structure of various departments, but also in the structure of neural circuits and chemical compounds that carry messages from neuron to neuron,” says Marina Butovskaya, Doctor of Biological Sciences, anthropologist. Moreover, these differences are formed long before our birth: they are laid down genetically.
Between 18 and 26 weeks of fetal development, the testicles of an unborn boy begin to produce the sex hormone testosterone, which, interacting with the brain tissue, transforms it. Ultrasound examination of a woman at 26 weeks of gestation allows you to distinguish the brain of a boy from the brain of a girl.
Comparison of merits
Research by scientists over the past ten years suggests that there are two types of brain: male and female.
“The most important difference is that our limbic system and the cerebral cortex are developed differently,” explains Sergey Savelyev, Doctor of Biology. – The cortex is responsible for conscious perception, analysis, comparison, choice. In a man, it contains about 11 billion nerve cells, in a woman – about nine. But in the female brain, the limbic system dominates – an older area of the brain that controls physiological, hormonal processes, emotional and instinctive behavior.
Other important gender features of the functioning of the brain are related to the size of its regions. In 2001, neurophysiologists from Harvard Medical School, led by Jill Goldstein, compared 45 areas of the brain and found, for example, that women, on average, have better developed areas of the frontal lobe of the cortex, where the centers responsible for planning actions are located. And in men, the areas of the parietal cortex involved in the perception of space.
In addition, men have a larger amygdala, a small area of the brain that controls emotions, social and sexual behavior. “Interestingly, in the same situations,” says Larry Cahill, “in men, the right amygdala nucleus is activated, and in women, the left. That is why men, when talking about an event, describe it as a whole, while women concentrate on the details.
At the same time, there are women among women who have a “male” brain, and vice versa.
“In about 10% of women, the brain is masculinized to varying degrees,” says Marina Butovskaya. – This is due to the fact that their nervous system even before birth, in the womb, at the age of six to eight weeks, was exposed to an excessive dose of testosterone. The brain is feminized to some extent in 15–20% of men. The reason for this, on the contrary, is the lack of testosterone … Most often this happens if the mother experienced severe stress during pregnancy.
We speak different languages
Men and women not only perceive the world differently, but also speak about different things and use different words.
It is known that men and women are interested in different topics. Men talk more about politics, cars, sports; women – about children, fashion, relationships. At the same time, everything that the stronger sex talks about is taken seriously, and women’s conversations are usually regarded as trivial, write the authors of the book Gender and Language.
This is how social representations are manifested, according to which what men do and say is significant and important, and what women do is less significant. Women often use adjectives in their speech, use diminutive suffixes (“baby”, “cute”). There are more verbs and nouns in the speech of men. Usually, the strong half of humanity is allowed much more than the fairer sex: women generally use literary forms, while men more often use colloquial expressions, jargon and abuse.
Inherit and develop
But why did nature and evolution take care to make us so different from each other? Sergey Savelyev believes that the differences are primarily related to the reproductive task – to continue the human race – which means that the influence of upbringing, education and the environment in which we live is limited.
“From birth, we are given only one tenth of our neural networks, the rest are formed under the influence of stimuli coming from the outside world,” disagrees neuroscientist Catherine Vidal, chief researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. This means that some brain differences are acquired during life.
“A woman is not born, she is made,” Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her book The Second Sex. It seems that men are not born either. In a word, each gender needs to know its strengths in any case … in order to be able to laugh at its weaknesses.
Why do you need testosterone?
Its amount determines the “sex” of the brain, but not only. Men have more testosterone than women. They owe testosterone many of the qualities necessary for hunting and war.
Depends on him: muscle strength, speed of reaction and impatience (92% of drivers buzzing at traffic lights are men!), aggressiveness, competitiveness, dominance instinct (the dominant male ensures the quality of the breed), accuracy, endurance and stamina, wound healing, beard growth and baldness, vigilance (this allows the hunter to notice animals from afar), orientation in space (to return home with prey), craving for adventure, for new experience, willingness to take risks, sexual attraction to a young female (ready for reproduction) and the desire to protect her.
In turn, the female hormones estrogens develop in a woman an attraction to a dominant male, strong and experienced, recognized in society (hence, not too young, but able to protect her).