Men and Women’s Brains Really Are Different

Sex differences are of high scientific and societal interest because of their prominence in human (and nonhuman) behavior. Scientists using MRI imaging to scan the brains of young men and women, find out that female brains are designed to carry out many tasks simultaneously. Male brains are designed to make them better at carrying out single tasks.

According to the study males have better motor and spatial abilities, whereas females have superior memory and social cognition skills.

In this work, we modeled the structural connectome using diffusion tensor imaging in a sample of 949 youths (aged 8–22 y, 428 males and 521 females) and discovered unique sex differences in brain connectivity during the course of development. Connection-wise statistical analysis, as well as analysis of regional and global network measures, presented a comprehensive description of network characteristics.

Overall, the results suggest that male brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains are designed to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes.

Brain networks showing significantly increased intra-hemispheric connectivity in males (Upper) and inter-hemispheric connectivity in females (Lower). Intra-hemispheric connections are shown in blue, and inter- hemispheric connections are shown in orange. (PNAS)