More Brain Points

"Male brain" vs. "female brain"?

It is widely accepted that behavioral differences between males and females are associated with structural differences in the brain.  Gender stereotypes are so obvious in society and many are quick to develop pseudoscientific explanations, that women are more emotional because their limbic systems are larger, for example.   Some go as far as to distinguish between “female” and “male” brains.  But why are we comparing the brain to a reproductive organ when it is so much more than that?  Daphna Joel, head of the psychology program at Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Sciences and researcher at the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, asks this question everyday as she has devoted her research to exploring the physiological differences between the male and female brains – which, there turns out, aren’t many of. 

Joel, who began researching neural differences between genders several years ago, has made it her goal to better educate people on how little the brain varies between males and females.  After extensive meta-analysis, she has exposed the ambiguity and scandal in already published studies on how brains are wired differently.  She believes that these studies gain more attention because they appeal to the public more than those that provide more “boring” explanations.  In fact, she has had trouble even publishing articles about her suggested intersex brain.

“The editors wrote to me, saying that the subject of the article was not interesting to the public.  Just like that,” said Joel.  

                She believes that developmental differences between genders come from the way children are raised, not the way their brains are formed.  She asserts that male stereotypes such as aggressiveness are reinforced in young boys but discouraged in young girls.  Conversely, boys are discouraged from and showing emotion while similar behavior is excused in girls. 

               This is also the basis of the argument made by Lise Eliot in her book “Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps – And What We Can Do About It”.  Eliot, a neuroscientist at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, argues that children are trained from birth to adhere to their gender stereotypes, resulting in the differences in personality and behavior that we associate to either males or females.  She believes that parents react differently to young boys than they would young girls, changing their environment in ways that have already been proven in neuroscience to affect the way genes are expressed which over time, could lead to significant cerebral differences.  But, she emphasizes that this refers to adult brains and that these differences are not seen from birth.  She suggests taking a more gender-neutral approach to parenting, hoping that this can close the gap between what is accepted and what is considered inappropriate within specific genders. With the field of neuroscience advancing so quickly, it is important to distinguish between legitimate scientific discoveries and public interest pseudoscience.  Hopefully, more like Joel and Eliot also realize this problem and can help better educate society on these important social issues.

 

Works Cited:

Eliot, Lise. Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps--and What We Can Do About It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.

Weissberg, Hila. "Fifty Shades of Grey Matter: Male vs. Female Brains." Haaretz.com. N.p., 27 Feb. 2014.