We hear plenty about the supposed natural differences between men and women. Men are better at math. Women are more emotional. Girls mature faster than boys. Ideas like this are so firmly rooted in our society that you may not even remember the first time you heard the stereotype.
But are these beliefs actually true? Recent studies into the way male and female brains differ provide insight into this question.
Male And Female Brain Differences
A 2015 study by scientists at Newcastle University explored the brain scans of 121 participants between the ages of 4 and 40. They used diffusion tensor imaging, a non-invasive MRI-based neuroimaging technique. (1, 2)
The study found that as the brain matures, it loses connections. This is because it’s streamlining the way it communicates across its networks. The images showed that women begin to lose these connections faster. One researcher characterized this as positive. Sol Kim, one of the leaders of the study, said, “The loss of connectivity during brain development can actually help to improve brain function by reorganizing the network more efficiently. “ (1, 3)
Another study, led by Stuart Ritchie of the University of Edinburgh, used brain scans on a larger scale than has been seen before. Researchers looked at brain scans from 2750 women and 2466 men between the ages of 44 and 70. They focused on the volumes of 68 subregions of the brain. They also looked at the thickness of the cerebral cortex. (4)
The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the cerebrum, plays an important role in memory, consciousness, and language. Researchers identified that women had much thicker cerebral cortices than men. In past research, thicker cortices have correlated with higher scores on general intelligence and cognitive tests. (4)
On the other hand, the study discovered that men had higher brain volumes in the following regions:
- hippocampus, associated with memory and spatial awareness
- amygdala, connected to memory, emotions, and decision making
- striatum, linked to learning and inhibition
- thalamus, related to processing sensory information and communicating it to other parts of the brain (4)
Researchers also adjusted volume measurements proportionate to overall brain size. They found that there were 14 regions where men had higher brain volume and 10 where women did. (4)
Additionally, results showed much more variability in cortical thickness and volumes of brain regions in men than in women. This corresponds with previous research into sex and IQ, which found that there was no average intelligence difference between women and men. But men had much more variability in IQ than women did. (4)
Not So Different
Despite these general differences found in the study, researchers said they found quite a bit of overlap in brain volume and cortical thickness for men and women. If you picked out a brain scan from the study at random, you would be unable to tell if it was from a man or a woman. (4)
Ultimately, it’s not possible to identify if a brain is “male” or “female”. People’s brains tend to have both characteristics that are common in men and characteristics that are common in women. (4, 5)
Beyond biological differences, social factors can help us understand general differences between male and female behavior. Christia Spears Brown, Ph.D. is the author of Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue: How to Raise Kids Free of Gender Stereotypes. She believes that differences between men and women can be attributed to cultural factors. For instance, the idea that women are more emotional may not arise from biological differences but from girls being prepared for emotional labor and boys being told not to cry. (5)
As Brown says, “no individual fits the male or female stereotype perfectly.” Our brains are incredibly complicated and diverse, unable to be distilled into simple descriptors like “male” or “female”. (5) The Newcastle University study seems to sum it up best: “Overall, for every brain region that showed even large sex differences, there was always overlap between males and females, confirming that the human brain can not—at least for the measures observed here—be described as ‘sexually dimorphic’.”
