The Male vs. Female Brain

1. The Male vs. Female Brain Male vs. Female clip (4:48mins)

2. Interesting... • More men than women are left-handed; • More men favour the right ear when listening; • More women listen equally with both ears, men tend to listen with only one ear; • More men than women excel at rotating 3-D objects in their heads • More women than men prove better at reading the emotions of people in photographs...

3. Why? • The male brain is larger and heavier than the female brain but female brains contain more nerve cells, therefore increasing the number of connections being made. • The Corpus Callosum is the band of nerves that allow the right & left halves of the brain to communicate. It connects the two hemispheres. In women, this band is larger (23% apprx) which allows for increased connections between the two halves of the brain.

4. What else? • Because of the larger Corpus Callosum, women have better intuition & are able to read emotional clues. • With respect to spelling it is known that women use both their hemispheres, while men use the left side of their brain only. • Women often use their right brain more than men do, and because the area associated with emotions is on the right side of the brain, women have more experience with this.

5. Impact on Spatial Awareness... The greater communication between the two hemispheres impairs a women’s performance of certain visual-spatial tasks: e.g. Directions on a map without physically rotating the map. Men use their left hippocampus, which is larger in men, to navigate through virtual reality mazes. The localization of the left-brain increases the ability for spatial thinking.

6. Networks... • Men build stronger connections within each half of the brain, so they only need to use one hemisphere (like a spotlight). • Women’s brains are better networked, using both halves of the brain, (like a floodlight).

7. Comparisons: Men Women • Men are better at jigsaws, map reading, math & fixing things. • Perform better on tests that require the ability to mentally rotate an image in order to solve a problem. • Women are better at communicating, solving word puzzles and spotting hidden patterns. • Stronger at linguistics & produce more words • Better at recall lists of words or paragraphs

8. In Pre-Historic times: Cave men hunted & cave women gathered food near the home & cared for the children; needed to remember where the food supply was located for future use. Men were more suited to finding their way back and have more superior senses than females. They’d walk for days in many directions & once they found their food, they’d realize they were very far from home. The brain of the hunter allowed them to mark certain details in order to go home. These markers would help them find their way; they have an internal and living navigator in their brains.

9. Communication Men Women • Men tend to communicate in a more internalized methods using words like, Me, mine, I: (E.g. I’m looking to hire someone for my department...”) • Men tend to call to attention their accomplishments as a form of self-propelling (“getting ahead”). • Tend to communicate in a more inclusive manner using we, our, us: (E.g. “ We am looking for someone to hire in our department....”) • Tend to want to hear many opinions before sharing her own; the “consensus model” • Women don’t generally call to attention their accomplishments to same extent