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How does a man's brain work? How is the male brain different from the female? Physiology of mental processes

Scientists have long suspected that the brain of a man and a woman is arranged differently ... It receives and processes information and creates a program own actions, monitoring success.

Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers at the University of California and the University of New Mexico found that men's brains have, on average, 6.5 times the amount of gray matter. But in the women's - 10 times more than white. This does not mean that a woman is dumber. Structural features of the brain do not affect the level of IQ. They only create a predisposition to certain types of intellectual work - in the humanitarian or technical field ...

“From the data obtained, we can conclude that evolution has created two various types brain to solve the same intellectual problems,” says Professor Richard Hair from the US Department of Pediatrics, who has been doing research in the field of psychology and the possibilities of human intelligence for many years.

He conducted his study of the structural features of the brain of men and women together with colleagues from the University of California at Irvine and from the University of New Mexico.

According to neuropsychologist Rex Jung, this discovery partly explains why men are so successful in engineering and physics and mathematics, and women in the humanities. The gray matter in the brain is responsible for the accumulation and assimilation of information, and the white matter is responsible for the analysis and comparison of information received in different time. White matter actually provides a link between the "gray information centers". When it comes to numbers and technical specifications, it is the “information processing centers” that are of paramount importance. In the humanitarian sphere, it is important, first of all, to compare facts.

But when it comes to learning, that is, the ability to find information in the text and remember it, both types of brain are equally suitable for this. Russian scientists from the Institute of Higher nervous activity and neurophysiology RAS. “A certain level of intelligence is not achieved at the expense of the neuroanatomical structure of the brain. Both structures are equally capable of intellectual activity,” they say.

To conduct this study, the method of magnetic resonance scanning of the brain was used. The resulting images using special technique were converted into structural "maps" of the brain, with the help of which the volume of brain tissue was compared with the level of IQ of the corresponding individuals. As a result, areas of the brain with a different structure depending on the gender of a person were identified.

Differences in the structure of certain parts of the brain of men and women are amazing. For example, 84% of all gray matter and 86% of white matter in women were found in the frontal lobes of the brain. In men, only 45% of gray matter is located in the frontal lobes, and white matter was not found in these areas of the brain at all. The gray matter is more evenly distributed in the male brain.

“There are objective statistics, according to which frontal brain injuries in women can lead to incapacitation when the patient cannot adequately assess the environment. In men with frontal injuries, this happens much less frequently. Now we know why,” the researchers say.

Some differences between the brain of men and the brain of women

It has long been proven that a woman's brain is 10% smaller than a man's. However, this does not affect the level of intelligence.
· But the male brain decreases with age faster than the female.
Men and women use different parts of the brain to solve the same task.
· If a man gets lost, he will remember the direction of movement and the distance traveled, and a woman - landmark objects. It is the same with driving: a man remembers the road by numerical values of distances, and a woman often remembers all sorts of signs and shop windows.
· A woman often remembers everything in detail, a man needs a summarizing thought.
Men perceive information faster, and therefore react faster. But…
· Women are more likely to perceive several information streams, and men get annoyed when they have to do something “at the same time”.
· Men are stronger in the exact sciences, and women are better given the humanities.
· Women are more talkative. Such sociability is associated with the work of the pleasure center in the brain.
· Women use almost three times more words during the day than men.
Men and women react differently to harsh and annoying sounds.
· The female brain heats up more during operation, because. more glucose is "burned".
Men and women have different perceptions of humor. Men are more excited about the cheerful ending, and women enjoy the subtlety of humor in general, the language of presentation, and enjoy the denouement even more than men.
Women have better organizational skills.
· Men's hearing is weaker than women's. Therefore, women hear the subtlest intonations, and men - not always. And in terms of tactile sensations men lose to women. The sight of men is quite erotic, while women better remember any details of the picture.
· Men perceive speech with the help of logic, therefore “they hear exactly what is being said”, and women connect intuition and emotions, therefore they “seem to see some hints everywhere”.
· Women are naturally more sociable, men are aggressively competitive. Therefore, men fight more often. For the same reason, women are annoyed by the fact that men cannot maintain a long conversation with them, but the point is that men's speech is usually less developed.

Men and women react differently to danger. In a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging, it was found that in men, areas of the brain that are responsible for avoiding or confronting danger are activated. And in women, the emotional areas of the brain become more active.

Researchers at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow followed 21 men and 19 women. The subjects were first shown photographs that evoked negative emotion. And then they showed images that evoke positive emotions.

In the first case, the left thalamus, the area of the brain responsible for the transmission of pain and pleasure signals, activated in women. In men, negative images increased activity in the left brain islet, which is responsible for involuntary functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. According to doctors, it is this part of the brain that is responsible for making decisions in critical situations.

When looking at positive photos, the women's brains were hard at work on areas related to memory. In men, positive pictures caused the activation of parts of the brain that are responsible for visual information processing.

Women analyze positive images in a wider social context and associate them with their own memories. And men react less emotionally.

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE RESEARCH

The differences between the brains of men and women began to be studied at the end of the 19th century. Even then, scientists in France and the United States found that the brain processes in the minds of men determine their addiction to loud sounds and strong handshakes, to sudden movements and red. For the female brain, the abundance of words and the romance of relationships, the softness of the treatment and the blue color are preferable.

By today it has become clear that the brains of men and women have a lot of differences. So, the Nobel laureate Roger Sperry explained in the 60s that the female brain is smaller than the male one, and its hemispheres function differently. And in 1997, the Dane Berthe Pakkenberg proved that the male brain contains an average of 4 million cells less than the female, and women are on average 3% more mentally gifted than men.

The main difference between the male and female brain is in the differences in the functional load on the left and right hemispheres. Men are clear: left hemisphere is responsible for memory, practice, logic, facts, etc., and the right one is for intuition, feelings, emotions, artistry, ideas. In women, the hemispheres are responsible for about the same, but, firstly, to a lesser extent and, secondly, they are much more strongly interconnected by a network of nerve “wiring”.

By and large, in the minds of men and women there is only one thing in common. A 1999 brain scan of both sexes by Helen Fisher of the University of New Jersey showed that everyone has three stages of emotion: lust (lasting from a few hours to two dozen weeks), infatuation (lasting from 3 to 12 months), and attachment. . The possibility of the onset of the third stage depends not so much on gender as, as they say, on the person. And the degree of its duration is also determined only by whether the partners are able to understand what processes are going on in the head of each of them.

No, they are not from different planets. Then why is it that very often men do not understand women, and women refuse to see the reason for this misunderstanding? You just need to pay attention to the fact that they have a substantial brain. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have proven that men and women have different brain structures.

Main differences

The volume of the brain of a man is 10% larger than that of a woman. But women should not worry about this, because. smaller brain size fair half humanity is offset by its more complex structure. Quantifying the level of intelligence IQ has nothing to do with the volume and weight of the brain. Therefore, the question "Who is smarter?" in any case becomes .

The alternating work of the brain in men contributes to the fact that he can focus on only one task. But it will approach its decision fundamentally. A woman can do several tasks at the same time. Therefore, they are more versatile, flexible and balanced. Unlike men, two work at the same time.

Coordination of movements is better developed in men than in women.

IN non-standard situations Men are capable of making healthier decisions. Women in such cases can not always choose the right option.

Consequences

Women tend to combine logic and intuition as one. In men: logic - separately, intuition - separately.

A woman can think and feel at the same time. In men, again, there is a division. He cannot think and feel at the same time.

different behavior in stressful situations. Men need to retire, women need to speak out.

Exact sciences are easier for men, women - for the humanities.

Men are quicker to respond to information. Women “catch up” for a long time, but they can easily perceive several streams of information. Men are very annoyed by such a “simultaneous game session”.

Men need general ideas, women need details. Hence, speaking scientific language, men act according to the principle of induction, i.e. From general to specific. The principle of deduction is more suitable for women, i.e. from the particular to the general.

Men hear literally and specifically what they are told. Women are very often "chased" by hints. They are prone to speculation and juggling of facts.

Sociability of women from birth knows no bounds. But it is easier for men to withstand competition. When they speak, it is almost always strictly to the point. Therefore, the sociability of women is often with empty chatter and talk about nothing.

With age, the male brain shrinks faster than the female. Apparently to healthy lifestyle women weigh more in life.

Male vision is erotic vision. Women are more interested in the details of some or knick-knacks than erotica.

Men tend to think more in gray matter, women in white matter. From this follows the conclusion that these are two different types of brain and two principles of action. Therefore, men and women solve the same problem in different ways. But it would be illogical to specify each individual, because quite common in nature mixed types brain.

It so happened that the gender war has been going on for more than one millennium, only women have been in the role of the vanquished almost all this time. The revered ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle urged men to treat opposite sex like a vice. Christians accused all women of the fall, and the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, once said that girls develop faster than boys, “because weeds grow faster than grain.” In the 19th century, women finally gained access to university education, but around this time, the phrase "chicken brains" was coined, applied exclusively to the weaker sex. It would seem that in the 21st century, prejudices regarding the inferiority of the female brain and mental capacity but, alas, that did not happen. And in the summer of 2017, a participant in the scandal with subsequent dismissal was a Google employee who said that it is more difficult for women to become IT specialists due to biological characteristics.

Scientists have proven that there really is a difference between the male and female brain, but it does not make any gender better or worse.

The result of numerous studies has been interesting fact: biological sex does not always determine the sex of the brain. Functions characteristic of a man may predominate in the brain of a woman, and vice versa between typically masculine or feminine features balance can be maintained.

More doesn't mean better

Size is the first thing that distinguishes the male brain from the female, but not something that representatives should be proud of strong half humanity. A larger volume of gray matter (about 8-13%) is associated with a larger physique of men, but in no way is an indicator of an outstanding mind. The mental abilities of girls do not suffer from a smaller mass of the brain, because their neurons are denser.

The size of some brain areas also differ depending on gender. Areas of the frontal lobe of the brain active during decision making are slightly larger in women. But in the male brain, the parietal part of the cortex and the amygdala are enlarged. What does this mean in practice? This structure leads to the female ability to multitask and male features better navigate in space and feel the danger. These differences are easily explained by the evolutionary process: mothers had to simultaneously look after the children and run the household, and fathers had to get food by hunting.

Pregnancy affects a woman's brain in a special way. Starting from the third trimester and ending six months after the birth of a child, the organ decreases in size. However, such changes do not make the expectant or nursing mother dumber, just the brain starts to work differently:

areas responsible for the functioning of the sense organs increase;
the amygdala becomes larger, which is responsible for fear and anxiety;
the hypothalamus, which regulates the menstrual cycle, loses its activity.

You can't be silent

We specifically wrote this phrase without punctuation marks. It is one of the differences between male and female brains, namely verbal abilities. It is believed that women talk more than men. However, this does not at all indicate that girls have nothing to do with themselves, except for conversations, just communication for them is an important part of life. Difference between communication skills boys and girls is laid back in the period prenatal development. Testosterone in male fetuses slows the growth of the left hemisphere, which is responsible for verbal skills, which contributes to the development of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for visuospatial functions. That is why women are better at operating with words, and men are better at navigating the terrain.

In the fair sex, the processing of verbal information occurs with the participation of both hemispheres, while in men - with the help of one. Therefore, women recover more easily from speech disorders, for example, as a result of a stroke.

Who said men don't cry? IN preschool age little boys are more prone to tears and screams, because they are simply less able to formulate their thoughts and emotions with words than their peers. They also show a lesser tendency to communicate in adolescence, but teenage girls become simply hypersocial. Thus, the female brain responds to the release of stress hormones.

On emotions

It is believed that women are more emotional, and men are balanced and do not show their feelings. However, examples from life do not allow us to consider this an axiom. It is enough just to look at the stands during sports competitions.

Differences in emotional sphere between the brain of a man and a woman really is. This is clearly expressed, for example, in the reaction to stress. The male half of humanity remembers the essence of emotions, and the female half remembers the details. After a difficult event for the psyche, men prefer to be alone. The female brain in a stressful situation activates the system responsible for attachment, so young ladies seek solace from loved ones.

The innate tendency to notice the slightest changes in the emotions and behavior of other people is transformed into the so-called female intuition. Therefore, a girl, even when she is in an unfamiliar company, will most likely determine the relationship of those present with each other: who is whose friend, lover, etc. But a man will correctly read the emotions on the faces only of people of his gender.

The tendency to experience can play a cruel joke on women: according to statistics, ladies are twice as likely to suffer from depression.

Maiden memory

In fact, women's memory differs in duration due to the lobe of the hippocampus, which is less active in men. No wonder they say that a woman forgives insults, but does not forget. However, with age, statistics testify in favor of the opposite sex - the brain of a man resists dementia better. With Alzheimer's disease, a decrease in mental abilities occurs faster in women, and they die from this disease more often. The difference between the male brain and the female brain in this regard is determined by sex hormones. Estrogen levels during menopause decline faster than male testosterone levels.

The vicissitudes of love

No matter how much they talk about matters of the heart, the choice of a partner is the work of the brain. The study, which involved representatives of 37 cultures, proved that the criteria for choosing a life partner have not changed for thousands of years.

For a man, the attractiveness of a partner is determined by the visual system. If he sees clean skin, Thick hair, full lips and a figure in the form hourglass- the brain will definitely approve the picture with the release of testosterone.

The female brain is arranged differently and reacts not only to appearance, but also calculates personal qualities. Offensive for men, the question about the type of their activity (earnings) is quite correct from the point of view of female nature: for young ladies, it is important that the partner can provide for future children. The girls will ask financial position potential chosen one, even if this moment not focused on motherhood.

Knowledge is power

Scientists continue to find differences between the brains of men and women. The results of research and experiments are not just interesting information but also a reason to improve the interaction between the sexes. The difference in the mental and emotional sphere is just a fact that must be accepted as a given and the battle of the sexes must be stopped. Knowledge of differences in brain activity men and women can help raise children, married life And business relations. For example, parents will not scold boys for tears, and girls for talkativeness, husbands recognize the presence of female intuition, and company executives will stop preventing employees from moving up the career ladder.

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neurologist, top blogger LJ

Everything starts at birth. In boys, in the first week of life, the concentration of the male sex hormone testosterone in the blood suddenly increases. Its high values persist for two weeks, and then gradually decrease. In girls, estrogen rises from about the second week of life and lasts for about a month.

Nature very rationally manages the resources of the body. So what is this hormonal firework in babies, reminiscent of a mini-rehearsal of puberty, for? Neuroscientists believe that this is necessary for "programming" the sex differences in the brain.

The amazing does not end there: studies show that a person has receptors for estrogen, progesterone and testosterone not only in the genital organs and the hypothalamus - the hormonal "conductor" of the brain, but also in other brain structures that are responsible for memory, emotions, planning. And this suggests that the brain in men and women should function differently. Moreover, nerve cells not only susceptible to the action of male and female sex hormones, but they themselves are able to form them!

And this fact causes a lot of speculation about the difference intellectual abilities men and women. Inquisitive supporters of patriarchal values quickly find information that the brain of a woman, on average, is smaller in size than that of a man. Moreover, ladies usually have less gray matter - it turns out, and the cat also cried a lot of nerve cells in their brain! What is not proof that men are naturally smarter, smarter and smarter than women?

However, the fact of a larger brain is more of a manipulation from the field of eugenics. It cannot be called a weighty argument. They will not be able to operate in the scientific community - they will laugh. An increase in the volume and mass of the brain does not at all promise a rapid increase in intelligence and the emergence of new skills and abilities. big brain may not be very functional. It just naturally belongs to a large individual.

In other words, the locksmith Vasek with three classes of education, a body weight of 100 kg and an impressive brain has much less chance receive a Nobel Prize than the neuroscientist Elena Andreevna with two higher, active scientific activity, weighing 56 kg and a brain much smaller than that of Vaska

The functionality of the brain does not depend on size, but on the organization of neurons and on how often the owner uses it to solve various problems, gain new experience and remember information. Therefore, gender does not determine the development of the brain and the level of intelligence. Everything is decided by the environment and how effectively a person learns to interact with it.

Sex hormones and the brain

It is assumed that normal level the female sex hormone estrogen helps maintain enough high level intellect. Of course, if the estrogen is above normal values, this will not make you Sofia Kovalevskaya. However, the age-related decline in estrogen levels in women is considered by some researchers to be a predisposing factor in the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. There is one more interesting effect estrogen: the higher their level, the harder for a woman given orientation on the ground and memorization of abstract information. On the other hand, estrogens improve declarative memory, that is, the ability to remember events, the location of objects, and notice various details.

Studies show that women, on average, are worse at remembering new routes, doing more bugs when trying to re-traverse a new path. Men have worse developed verbal memory. It is more difficult for them to remember names, dates, and also replenish their vocabulary with new words. It could be assumed that such a difference is associated with differences in the upbringing of children of different sexes, because it is customary for boys to encourage research interest, courage and curiosity, while for girls it is perseverance and diligence. However, studies on other mammals show a similar picture. So, the reason for the differences here still lies in the influence of sex hormones on the brain.

Progesterone is able to change the synaptic transmission between nerve cells. In other words, it can make the communication of neurons closer, speed up the exchange of information, and make its assimilation more productive. Experiments on rats have shown that increasing levels of estrogen and progesterone can improve the functioning of the hippocampus, the brain structure responsible for memory. In addition, progesterone promotes the restoration of myelin fibers. This is probably related to the improvement in well-being in patients with multiple sclerosis during pregnancy. Very often they go into long-term remission. Unfortunately, after childbirth, a sharp deterioration often occurs, and the disease again begins to destroy the nervous system ...

Androgens, the male sex hormones, also play a role in brain development. It is assumed that they are responsible for the lateralization of brain functions, that is, for the specialization and deepening of its functions. This makes the male brain "single-tasking". In women, the interaction of the hemispheres is more complete, so they "multitask", able to quickly switch and sometimes even do several things at once. Don't take the idea of lateralization of brain function too seriously: it was based on the fact that damage to Broca's area (the area that is responsible for speech) in men causes much more catastrophic consequences than in women. However, modern data show that everything is not so clear and in more depends on age, intelligence and the extent of the lesion.

Whose brain is better?

There are many publications on the effect of sex hormones on brain development. There is no doubt that the brain of a man and a woman is really different - not only because of the different density of neurons in the speech centers (women have more gray matter there on average, therefore verbal memory is usually better developed), lateralization of functions and other complex neurophysiological things.

Don't forget that environment renders where greater influence on the development of the brain and personality than all neurophysiological causes combined (if we are talking about healthy person). Girls are brought up differently than boys. And the expectations are also different: in some families, it is generally accepted that if a girl does not like mathematics and physics, then this is “simply not given by nature” and you should not strain, they say, anyway, the main task of a woman is to get married and give birth to a baby. And the boy in the same family will try to motivate everyone to study the exact sciences possible ways: they promise a new smartphone for passing the exam, hire a tutor, buy books for self-study.

There are indeed differences in the work of the brain of a man and a woman, but this is not a reason to manipulate scientific data in order to prove that women are “naturally” stupid, ignorant, unable to control their emotions and have made far fewer scientific discoveries than men.

Unfortunately, you can still find publications in serious publications where the authors allow themselves to draw sexist conclusions. Here is a quote from a magazine article Psychological problems modern education” dated 2007 (authored by a woman): “ female form is responsible for preservation and the past, while men are responsible for change and the future... This is consistent with the proposition that women prefer and successfully solve reproductive problems (in which the requirements for innovation are minimal) when high requirements to the perfection of the solution, and men prefer and better solve problems that are encountered for the first time (in which the requirements for innovation are maximum) with minimal requirements for the perfection of the solution. The high search activity also explains the greater number of original answers in the boys' works. In other words, the author of the article groundlessly states that a woman was created to take care of everyday life and children, while men conquer the world, because this is how nature works, and besides, it is this order that everyone really likes.

The abundance of such publications creates a mythology about the male and female brain. Such statements become the main (and, as a rule, the only) argument in online battles on the topic of gender equality.

The male brain is beautiful in its structure in exactly the same way as the female. However, no brain is designed solely for "reproductive tasks." The cunning organization of neurons and their numerous processes is needed solely for one purpose: to make the brain and its owner (or owner) happy. Therefore, nerve cells store a huge potential for cognition, gaining new experience and using it for their own benefit. And what it will be: parenthood, a scientific career, sports achievements, volunteering or creativity, or maybe all at once, is up to you. Regardless of the presence of the Y chromosome in the genotype.

Scientists estimate that 20% of men have a female brain and 10% of women have a male brain, of course, with many individual differences. For example, women hear twice as well (2.3 times) as men. Women hear a man scream (and think he is angry), while men get the impression that he is talking in a confidential manner, even with a touch of participation.

A woman hears the speaker with the help of both hemispheres (left and right), while a man - mainly with the help of the left hemisphere, with the participation of verbal, logical thinking and therefore critical. Women have more close relations between the two hemispheres of the brain, which allows solving several tasks at the same time, and the speech of a man seems to them emotionally colored, subjectively realized through their desires and anxieties, passed through ethical or social values. They hear what a man says, but even more feel how he does it, feeling the timbre of a man's voice, the rhythm of his breathing, his supposed feelings.

The left hemisphere of the brain is more developed in women, and the right (so-called emotional) - in men. This is contrary to what the layman (and sometimes even psychotherapists) think. This means that a woman is more involved in verbal participation and communication, while a man is more prepared for action and competition.

The husband interrupts the wife to propose a solution, and the wife gets the feeling that he is not listening to her. In fact, men are more emotional than women, but they express their emotions less, and this should not be neglected in married life. For a woman, time is more important, the left hemisphere is responsible for this. Space is more important to a man, and the right hemisphere plays an important role here. The advantage of a man in tests in volumetric spatial action is enormous, starting from childhood.

A woman finds her way by specific markers - surpassing a man in memorizing or identifying specific objects. A man operates with abstract concepts - he is able to improvise, "cut a shortcut to get to his car or hotel."

It is believed that a woman is more sensitive, but not emotional. She has very good hearing, that's why importance have for her tender words, voice timbre, music, etc. She has more developed tactile sensitivity - on the skin of a woman there are 10 times more receptors that are sensitive to touch than a man's. In addition, oxytocin and prolactin (attachment and caress hormones) increase her need for touch and caress.

With regard to vision, in men it is more developed and more erotic - hence their interest and excitement caused by clothing, makeup, jewelry, nudity, pornographic magazines. However, women have better developed visual memory(on faces, the arrangement of objects, the shape of objects, etc.).

Fundamental differences between men and women are explained by natural selection over a million years of evolution of the human species. The male is adapted to hunting over large spaces and distances (as well as to fighting and warfare between tribes). He usually had to lead a silent pursuit of prey, sometimes for several days, and then find his way back to his cave (orientation). In ancient times, verbal exchange was very small, it is estimated that a prehistoric person met no more than 150 people in his entire life. Over the same period of time, the woman's brain adapted to fulfill her primary purpose of raising children, which required verbal communication. Based on this, at the biological level, a man is programmed for competition, a woman - for cooperation.

These differences are established during the very first weeks of fetal life and are only slightly affected by education and culture. Today it is believed that our personality is determined and determined by a third of heredity, by a third - intrauterine life. Personality is determined by a third and acquired knowledge, which is influenced by the cultural environment, level of education, upbringing, random circumstances.

When the ball is on the ground, the boys kick it, and the girls take it in their hands and press it to their chests. This happens involuntarily and is directly related to hormones.

Testosterone is the hormone of desire, sexuality and aggression. It could be called the hormone of conquest (military or sexual). In the optimal concentration of testosterone:

develops muscle strength (40% of the muscles in a man; 23% in a woman);
determines the speed of reactions and incontinence (92% of drivers honk in traffic jams, and these are mainly men);
contributes to the formation of aggression, competition, dominance (the dominant male maintains the quality of the species);
develops endurance, perseverance;
promotes wound healing, an increase in baldness, vigilance, the development of the right-handedness of the body, accuracy of movements and orientation.

Estrogens, in turn, contribute to the development of dexterity, separate movement of the fingers, left-handedness of the body, as well as the formation of about 15% of body fat in men and 25% in women, which is necessary to protect and feed the baby.

Estrogens also affect a woman's hearing, she distinguishes a wider range of sounds, better than a man (6 times) recognizes sounds and music, and sings better. A woman remembers the names of colors well, she also has a well-developed auditory and visual memory. A female is attracted to a dominant male who is strong, protective, experienced and socially recognized, and who tends to be older.