MALE AND FEMALE BRAIN

 My life companion (and queen) tried to tell me that when someone is married either party doesn’t (physically) belong to the other (i.e. like a car).

Given that I have less than nothing to do I started to look first if there exist any difference between male and female brain anatomy, especially given that it now seems that males and female brains are identical (whaat?). Male and female differ in some aspects of their brains, notably the overall difference in size with men having larger brains, on average (between 8% and 13% largerJ), but there are areas of the brain which appear not to be sexually differentiated.  Sexual dimorphism is a term for the phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Direct sex differences follow a bimodal distribution. ... For example, most males are taller and stronger than females, but an individual female could be taller and stronger than an individual male (absolutely true).

Another difference is size: males of all ages tend to have slightly larger brains, on average, than females, even after correcting for differences in body size. Electrical measurements reveal differences in boys' and girls' brain function since their birth.

However differences have been reported in specific areas such as mathematics (arithmetic for M.) and verbal measures. Also, studies have found the variability of male scores is greater than that of female scores, resulting in more males than females in the top and bottom of the IQ distribution (??).

Most studies have also found testosterone (J) to be associated with behaviors or personality traits linked with criminality such as antisocial behavior and alcoholism (L). In species that have high levels of male physical competition and aggression over females, males tend to be larger and stronger than females (daaaahhh…).

Most researchers agree that women are more emotionally expressive, but not that they experience more emotions than men do. Some studies have shown that women are more likely to produce inauthentic smiles than men do, while others have shown the opposite (can you believe it?).

Gender socialization refers to the learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex. Boys learn to be boys and girls learn to be girls. This "learning" happens by way of many different agents of socialization.

Here in the USA, adult males are, on average, 9% taller and 16.5% heavier than adult females (not very easy to find these numbers). There is no comparative evidence of differing levels of sexual selection having produced sexual size dimorphism between human populations (why wasn’t I asked??).

Researchers have been able to identify correlates of intelligence within the brain and its functioning. These include overall brain volume, grey matter volume, white matter volume, white matter integrity, cortical thickness and neural efficiency (whoseJ?).

Some evidence from brain morphology and function studies indicates that male and female brains cannot always be assumed to be identical from either a structural or functional perspective, and some brain structures are sexually dimorphic.

Brain size tends to vary according to body size. The relationship isn’t proportional, (I could give too many fucking examples) however; the brain-to-body mass ratio varies. The largest ratio found is in the shrew (ha, yeah, like it fucking matters….). Averaging brain weight across all orders of mammals, it follows a power law, with an exponent of about 0.75 (WOW!).

The hippocampus is a structure in the brain that has been associated with various memory functions. It is part of the limbic system, and lies next to the medial temporal lobe. And now let me talk about the “mysterious mind” that’s a part of the invisible, transcendent world of thought, feeling, attitude (permanently nasty for me)

) belief and imagination. The brain is the physical organ most associated with mind and consciousness, but the mind is not confined to the brain.

Traditionally, scientists have tried to define the mind as the product of brain activity: The brain is the physical substance, and the mind is the conscious product of those firing neurons, according to the classic argument. But growing evidence shows that the mind goes far beyond the physical workings of your brain. The brain is the central processing unit of the body and plays a key role in translating the content of the mind (your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, memories and imagination) into complex patterns of nerve cell firing and chemical release. At the end of the day, the relationship between the brain and the mind is very complex.

The cerebrum, the large, outer part of the brain, controls reading, thinking, learning, speech, emotions and planned muscle movements like walking. It also controls vision, hearing and other senses. Typically humans are characterized as having both a mind (nonphysical) and body/brain (physical). This is known as dualism. Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist as separate entities. Descartes/Cartesian dualism argue that there is a two-way interaction between mental and physical substances.

After having bored you (hopefully not to death) with what I learned about the way my brain is different from that of M. let me anticipate what I’ve been looking at (= learning) that’ll become future posts here:

·      My personal genetic similarity to the Neanderthals

·      Simulation hypothesis

·      I’m thinking about making a video post….

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/male-female-brains-biologically-different/563702/
2. https://qz.com/1057494/the-biggest-myth-about-our-brains-is-that-theyre-male-or-female/
3. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00677-x
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_sex_differences