Just ask! What's the difference between male and female brains?
Men are ambitious, women good at multitasking, right? But how are these various skills reflected in the brain? This week's question for Tomorrow Today comes from Timothy Rintaugu from Kenya.
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00:00 Do men and women have different brains and different abilities?
00:09 The brain is one of the most complex structures in the known universe.
00:13 It still remains a mystery to science.
00:17 A cross section shows the brain consists of the cerebrum and at the back the cerebellum.
00:24 On the inside is the diencephalon or midbrain which borders the brain stem.
00:30 But how all the parts are connected varies from person to person.
00:35 The cerebrum in men has more neurons whereas women's brains are more convoluted.
00:41 But does that fact explain certain abilities?
00:44 That's why men have better spatial orientation skills and women are more sensitive to emotions.
00:55 A 2013 study proved that both sides of a woman's brain are more connected to each other.
01:01 Whereas men have stronger connections within each of the sides of the brain.
01:07 The discovery led to a hasty conclusion that women are better at multitasking while men
01:12 are more goal oriented.
01:14 But a year later they realized that the differences had nothing to do with gender but rather the
01:20 actual size of the brain.
01:23 Still differences between men and women have definitely been discovered in the so-called
01:28 grey matter of the cerebral cortex.
01:31 Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland in the US conducted
01:37 brain scans on almost 1,000 subjects, both men and women.
01:42 They examined the brain's structure and activity and compared the volume in different areas
01:48 of the cerebral cortex's grey matter.
01:52 It showed that women have more grey matter in their frontal brains as well as other areas.
01:58 Men on the other hand have more grey matter in the lateral and posterior areas such as
02:03 the so-called occipital lobe.
02:06 Visual images are processed there and enter into our consciousness.
02:10 It's also responsible for facial recognition.
02:13 The regions that are more pronounced in women are linked to carrying out tasks, following
02:18 impulses and processing conflicts.
02:22 Our brain is also strongly influenced by professional and social demands.
02:27 One thing's for certain, our brains are very flexible.
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