A man's brain is, to put it kindly, just different

Marianne J. Legato, Professorin für klinische Medizin an Columbia University, beschäftigt sich mit Unterschieden in den wichtigsten Organen bei Frauen und Männern. Hier Ergebnisee ihrer Forschung über das Gehirn:

Women have more nerve cells in the left half of the brain, the seat of the ability to process language, than men. And in the brain, quantity of cells often correlates with quality. In a gymnast's brain, for example, the balance and motor skills region is larger than in a nongymnast's, and the more the gymnast practices, the bigger it gets.

Women have a greater degree of connectivity between the two halves of the brain, and the network of fibers that connect their right and left brains (the corpus callosum) is larger. This may explain an unusual difference, the significance of which scientists don't yet fully understand: The ­sexes process single words similarly, but when interpreting a sentence, men use a single specific area on one side of the brain; women mobilize the same area, but in the right and left parts of the brain.

Women appear to use more of their brains to listen and speak. That doesn't make women better listeners or speakers, but the increased accessibility they have to some parts of their brains may make activities essential to communication easier for them.

Women tend to experience stress more intensely than men thanks to their rich estrogen supply, which activates a larger field of neurons than occurs in men during an upsetting experience.

Women are better at tasks that require memorization because their higher level of estrogen is associated with improved learning and memory.

Men can sometimes better identify straightforward emotions such as rage and aggression in others' facial expressions and tone of voice than women can. This may be a holdover from the days when men had to assess aggression in other males so they could speedily arrange a defense. But men don't score as high as women in picking up on subtle nonverbal cues that telegraph sadness or fear.


Am Ende noch ein paar tröstende Worte:


One of the most encouraging discoveries thus far is that the gender gap in our brain function narrows as we age. This improvement in compatibility may occur because we spend our lifetimes learning from one another and in so doing become more alike. Talking to each other in a different way — one that respects our differences — may speed that process.

Die Zitate kommen aus dem Buch Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget

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