Study: Men's And Women's Brains Wired Differently
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A new study confirms what many already know: men's and women's brains are wired differently.
For any woman who's felt they've tried - and failed - to reason with a man or men who think they're better at taking action, a new scientific study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania confirmed those suspicions.
As CBS 2's Alice Gainer reported, the research found major differences with how the male and female brains are hard-wired.
Researchers at UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine imaged the brains of 949 adolescents and young adults.
They found women seem to have stronger links between reasoning and intuition, while men have stronger links between perception and action. The research showed female brain action is more interhemispheric - meaning the wiring goes between the left and right hemispheres of a female's brain.
Men, on the other hand, showed stronger brain action from front to back in one lobe of the brain.
LINK: Read Abstract
Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey, who was not involved in the study, further explains what researchers found.
"We relate this to men perceiving things and then having coordinated action...taking information and doing something. That's how a lot of men are," Ramsey told Gainer.
On the flip side, women are more wired to multi-task, the research found.
"We correlate this to women sorting things out between an analytical mind and an intuitive mind," said Ramsey.
But is this a case of nurture trumping nature? And are social gender roles reinforcing this, or is it all biological?
"So you can have a propensity for a brain-based disorder and whether you develop it or not really has a lot to do with your environment, how you're nurtured. So there's always an interplay in the brain," Ramsey told Gainer.
Dr. Ramsey said the bottom line is that if you want to train your brain to be better at something, you can. Otherwise, just blame it on biology.
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