Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal. Maps of neural circuitry show women's brains are designed for social skills and memory, men's for perception and co-ordination.

Jaleth · 2013-12-03T01:09:39+00:00

I'm intrigued by the verbiage used in the article. There are several occurrences of the phrases "women are better at" or "making women better at", however the article stops short of describing any function of mens' brains using similar phrasing.

Pecanpig · 2013-12-03T01:01:33+00:00

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memetherapy · 2013-12-03T04:40:19+00:00

The only 2 comments on r/feminism about this study...

"i just wrote an angry reply to this study over in r/science, this is total bullshit. less than 1,000 sample size, no mention of where any of the people are from, not even bothering to consider the effect that adolescence and the pursuant social pressures would have on a developing brain... just nonsense"

"If this difference is so striking, why haven't pathologists and anatomists observed this? (Notwithstanding the fact that DTI is quite tricky and full of pitfalls)"

How fucking crazy are these people? Do they actually think the penis and vagina are also shaped by culture?

2013-12-03T01:17:56+00:00

"It's quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are"

I really like this quote. Sums up the whole article quite nicely.

tallwheel · 2013-12-03T00:38:45+00:00

Being an uncoordinated male sucks.

2013-12-03T11:12:16+00:00

What was the control for these tests? Or did they assume learning doesn't affect brain chemistry?

GunOfSod · 2013-12-03T00:52:18+00:00

This can be reversed by making boys play with dolls.

stemgang · 2013-12-03T03:10:29+00:00

NO. Women and men are the same in all ways. Except when women are better.

/eyeroll

humanityisavirus · 2013-12-03T04:45:59+00:00

Since some people seem to be making more of this than they should, I'm going to point out that this doesn't really say anything about whether the differences between male and female brains are innate or whether they're conditioned. The brain, especially at a young age, is constantly "rewiring" itself based on stimulus it receives. If little girls are taught from a young age that they should focus more on social skills than spacial reasoning, it makes sense that their neural circuitry would have developed to support those skills. If girls just develop that way naturally, regardless of conditioning, it would also make sense that their brains would be wired that way. The differences started being more noticeable around age 13, which happens to be both around the time puberty starts and also around the time that boys and girls really start being treated differently.

So... yeah, there are differences, but we still don't really know why or whether it can be changed on a large scale. I honestly have no idea why anyone would be surprised by this.

AbsoluteRunner · 2013-12-03T16:02:17+00:00

Yay for more evidence that the sexes are in fact actually different.

rapey_raperson · 2013-12-03T17:41:32+00:00

I've poked around the comments on the Guardian, and in the threads in "other discussions" here on reddit. It seems Womyns, White Knights and Manginas all agree this study proves nothing. Plus, even if it did, it reinforces the theory that the patriarchal programming of female brains in society is the cause, not inherent physical differences.

You see, even if it's true - that male brains are wired differently - that only proves that societal gender programming pressure causes the changes that start taking place at age 14. In other words, men's brains are re-formed by their involvement in sports, playing violent video games (a little plug for rape culture there), and getting to use Dad's tools to repair their rape-mobiles; while little Suzy is forced to read Cosmo, spend hours a day putting on makeup, and competing to find the skimpiest outfit for school.

The only mystery left is why the changes do not start until age 14. With all the girls playing with dolls and the boys with toy trucks, the difference in wiring should have been observed way before then. But I'm sure there's a reason as yet undiscovered for that.

Soldier on men; our secret plan to suppress womyns everywhere now has been scientifically proven effective.

TheGDBatman · 2013-12-03T19:01:39+00:00

Uh-oh! Biotruths!

humanityisavirus · 2013-12-03T06:10:12+00:00

The fact that men and women tend to be generally mentally different is something we even have to go to great lengths of proving is evidence of how out of touch the "gender is a social construct" tabula rasa tripe is.

Humans are sexually dimorphic.

If we're physically different, it's not a huge step to say we're mentally different.

But if feminists couldn't whine about an abstract, and unfounded boogey man, they would have nothing to do.

Cthulusbaby · 2013-12-03T02:22:58+00:00

That explains why my wife is better at organization and remembering dates and birthdays, and I'm better at reading maps and driving.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2013-12-03T14:16:28+00:00

There's a reason feminists have such disdain for STEM fields, those darn scientists keep proving them wrong.

Ballem · 2013-12-02T22:38:17+00:00

Wouldn't perception affect male social skills, positively?

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