The difference between the male and the female brain
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How is the male and the female brain different?
The male and the female brain difference has been a public and scientific interest concerning their behavioural differences. The early research shows that the male brain is larger and superior than female brain. When a baby is developing, the hormones that are present affects the brain and determines if the baby will be a male or a female. Scientist studies on the total brain size, the corpus callosum and hypothalamus.
The total brain size
This studies shows that during birth, the boys brain is 12-20% is larger than that girls. It has been recorded that the boys head circumference is 2%larger than that of girl. Despite the head and brain of boys being big, the body weight of both sexes at that age is almost the same. Thus the girl and boy that weigh the same have similar brain sizes.
Differences in the Corpus Callosum
The corpus collasum is the main pathway that connect the left and right cerebral hemispheres. It is a fiber track that is made of 250million axons that is divided in split brain patients. Some states that the corpus collasum is more developed and bigger in women than in men while others state differently. Some researcher’s states that there are no differences between men’s or women’s corpus collasum with the use of the magnetic resonance imaging methods (Allen et al., 2003).
Differences in the Hypothalamus?
The hypothalamus has two areas namely the suprachiasmatic nucleus and preoptic which have recorded differences in male and female. The preoptic Area is involved in mating behaviour. The preoptic area of males is more voluminous and has more cells. To be certain, men have about 2times more cells and are 2.2 times larger than women. The difference in this area is seen in girls after a person attains 4years where the number of cells decreases in the nucleus. Suprachiasmatic Nucleus is involved in reproduction cycles and circadian rhythms. The main difference between Suprachiasmatic Nucleus in women and men is the shape. Thus the nucleus in male is shaped like a sphere while in females it is longer. But, the volume and the numbers of cells the same. The shape of suprachiasmatic influences the connection with the other brain areas of the hypothalamus
Women and Men – Boys and Girls
The neurological and behavioural differences between men and women should be done further to find neuroanatomical differences that explains the difference between male and female behaviours. However, the differences in most cognitive behaviours are more related to individual differences than to genders.
