Is There a Difference Between the Male and Female Brain

While there are some differences between the male and female brain, much of what you hear is wrong. As for differences, scientists can't draw conclusions about them.

You hear it everywhere: Men and women behave differently because of the way we’re wired. As neuroscientist and writer Christian Jarrett explains in “Great Myths of the Brain,” there are indeed differences between the average male brain and the average female brain, but scientists a long way from knowing what they mean.

For example, men have bigger brains than women do, even after taking account of their bigger bodies, throughout the lifespan, and may have 16 percent more neurons in the neocortex, where much of our thinking occurs. Women, however, also have a higher ratio of “gray” to “white” matter, and a high gray to white ratio is associated with better cognitive function in the elderly.

It would be a big mistake to assume the bigger male brain means men are “smarter” or that the higher gray to white ratio means women are. Perhaps smaller brains have a bigger gray to white ratio, regardless of sex — and scientists can’t draw conclusions about functioning.

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If you put a man and a woman in a brain scan and give them certain experiences or tasks, their brains light up differently. This doesn’t mean that men and women will behave differently or that one sex is superior at the task at hand. People often will behave similarly even when they show contrasting patterns of brain activity, and some argue that the sex-based brain differences serve to even things out rather than the other way around.

Stereotypes about the brain

You may have heard of “mirror neurons,” often hypothesized to be the basis of empathy. A book titled “The Female Brain” proposed that women have more mirror neurons or that their mirror neurons are more active. After all, lots of people believe that women are more empathic and generally superior at reading other people’s emotions. According to Jarrett, there is some evidence that women are better at recognizing facial expressions of fear and disgust, but not that they have more active or more mirror neurons.

The human brain consists of two hemispheres. How many times have you heard that some people are more “left-brained” (logical, analytical) and some “right-brained” (intuitive, creative)? In fact, there’s no sign of better hubs on the left side or right side in individuals.

This is especially important since many people think women are more “right-brained.” In a widely publicized study that fed this myth, the researchers concluded that, from childhood on, boys develop more connectivity within each brain hemisphere compared to girls, who have more connections between the two sides.

What might that mean? Some suggested that it explained why men are better map-readers — despite the fact that the study didn’t include experiments in which anyone read a map. Another large study examined the connectivity question and did not find sex differences.

Gina Rippon, PhD, a neuroscientist and professor of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University in the UK, explores in her book, “The Gendered Brain,” how mostly small studies have shown any differences at all in male and female brains have been extrapolated.

It hasn’t helped that inaccurate headlines and television shows have spread sensationalism, not facts, about “proof” that brains of men and women are significantly different.

Despite brain research exploding over the past 30 years with more and better brain imaging technology, neuroscientists have found no category-defining, decisive male/female brain differences, Rippon emphasizes.

She does acknowledge we live in a world rife with gender stereotypes and ingrained beliefs that our brains — whether female or male — help determine our skills and preferences. Those stereotypes can change how we think about ourselves.

“People ask me if there are differences in the gendered brain, and the short answer is yes, because our brains reflect the lives we have lived, the attitudes and experiences to which we have been exposed,” Rippon explains. “And if we live in a world where there are many gender stereotypes about what girls and boys, women and men can and can’t do, where we are constantly bombarded with gendered messages from social media and other sources, those experiences and those messages can change our brains.”

Useful studies about the differences about the male and female brain

All this said, studying brain sex differences may yet lead to useful discoveries. In an analysis of more than a hundred studies, the researchers concluded that this research may help us better understand depression, autism, schizophrenia, and attention deficit disorder, which are all related to brain development and show up differently in males and females. The authors wrote, however, “the link between function and structure is still under-explored; no predictions as to how structure may influence physiology or behavior are possible.”

Keep that in the forefront of your own brain the next time you hear that women and men are “wired” to behave differently. Also remember that our brains respond to our experiences over time: even “wiring” isn’t fixed. As Shakespeare has Ophelia say in Hamlet: “Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

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