#PAGE_PARAMS# #ADS_HEAD_SCRIPTS# #MICRODATA#

The female and the male brain


Authors: F. Koukolík
Authors‘ workplace: Primář: doc. MUDr. Radoslav Matěj, PhD. ;  Národní referenční laboratoř prionových chorob ;  Thomayerova nemocnice, Praha ;  Oddělení patologie a molekulární medicíny
Published in: Prakt. Lék. 2013; 93(4): 143-151
Category: Editorial

Overview

Brain anatomical and functional differences attributable to gender are well documented. These differences may be associated with differences in behaviours and cognitive performance. Brain size is independent of differences in grey matter distributions between men and women. Women show greater overall cortical connectivity and the underlying organization of their cortical networks is more efficient both locally and globally. There are regional sex differences in grey matter volume that are associated with sex hormones in the young adult human brain. It is commonly held that men show an advantage on spatial tasks and women on verbal tasks but there some differences in autobiographical and emotional memory, emotional reactivity, emotion regulation and empathy too. Some common pain conditions eg. temporomandibular disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia syndrome and tension-type and migraine headaches show sex-related differences in their occurrence. The magnitude and nature of sex differences in aggression can probably be better explained by sexual selection than by the social role theory. There are differences between the male and female neural correlates for aesthetic preference. The underrepresentation of women in science is better explained by socio-cultural factors than by biological causation. The gender similarities hypothesis holds that men and women are more similar than different on most psychological variables.

Keywords:
brain – sex – gender – differences – similarities


Sources

1. Allen LS, Hines M, Shrine JE, et al. Two sexually dimorphic cell groups in the human brain. J Neurosci 1989; 9: 497–506.

2. Andreano JM, Cahill L. Sex influences on the neurobiology of learning and memory. Cold Spring Laboratory Press 2009; 16: 248–266.

3. Archer J. Does sexual selection explain human sex differences in aggression? Behav Brain Sci 2009; 32: 249–311.

4. Becker JB. Sex differences in the brain: from genes to behavior. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press 2008.

5. Brun CC, Leporé N, Luders E, et al. Sex differences in brain structure in auditory and cingulate regions. Neuroreport 2009; 20: 930–935.

6. Cahill L, Uncapher M, Kilpatrick L, et al. Sex-related hemispheric lateralization of amygdala function in emotionally influenced memory: an fMRI investigation. Learn Mem 2004; 11, 261–266.

7. Cahill L. Sex differences in human brain structure and function: relevance to learning and memory. In: Pfaff DW, et al. (eds). Hormones brain and behavior. 2nd ed. Waltham: Academic Press 2009; 2307–2315.

8. Cairns BE, Gazerani P. Sex-related differences in pain. Maturitas 2009; 63: 292–296.

9. Canli T, Desmond JE, Zhao Z, et al. Sex differences in the neural basis of emotional memories. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2002; 99: 10789–10794.

10. Carver CS, Harmon-Jones E. Anger is an approach – related affect: evidence and implication. Psychol Bull 2009; 135: 183–204.

11. Ceci SJ, Williams WM, Barnett SM. Women´s underreprezentation in science: sociocultural and biological considerations. Psychol Bull 2009; 135: 218–261.

12. Cela-Conde CJ, Marty G, Maestu F, et al. Activation of the prefrontal cortex in the human visual aesthetic perception. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2004; 101: 6321–6325.

13. Cela-Conde CJ, Ayala FJ, Munar E, et al. Sex related similarities and differences in the neural correlates of beauty. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2009; 106: 3847–3852.

14. Clements AM, Rimrodt SL, Abel JR, et al. Sex differences in cerebral laterality of language and visuospatial processing. Brain Lang 2006; 98: 150–158.

15. Croson R, Gneezy U. Gender differences and preferences. J Econ Lit 2009; 47: 1–27.

16. Decety J. The neurodevelopment of empathy in humans. Dev Neurosci 2010; 32(4): 257–267. doi:10.1159/00317771.

17. Domes G, Schulze L, Böttger M, et al. The neural correlates of sex differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. Hum Brain Mapp 2010; 31: 758–769.

18. Doty RL, Cameron EL. Sex differences and reproductive hormone influences in human odor perception. Physiol Behav 2009; 97: 213–228.

19. Filingim RB, King Ch. D, Ribeiro-Dasilva M, et al. Sex, gender, and pain: a review of recent clinical and experimental findings. J Pain 2009; 10: 447–485.

20. Gong G, Rosa-Neto P, Carbonell F, et al. Age-and gender-related differences in the cortical anatomical network. J Neurosci 2009; 29: 15684–15693.

21. Gur RC, Turetsky BI, Matsui M, et al. Sex differences in brain gray and white matter in healthy young adults: correlations with cognitive performance. J Neurosci 1999; 19: 4065–4072.

22. Gray J. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus: A practical guide for improving communication and getting what you want in your relationship. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.

23. Hamilton S. Cognition and sex differences. Basingstoke, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2008.

24. Hines M, Chiu L., McAdams LA, et al. Cognition and the corpus callosum: Verbal fluency, visuospatial ability and language lateralization related to midsagittal surface areas of callosal subregions. Behav Neurosci 1992; 106: 3–14.

25. Hines M. Gonadal hormones and sexual differentiation of human brain and behavior. In: Pfaff DW, et al. (eds). Hormones brain and behavior. 2nd ed. Waltham: Academic Press 2009; 1869–1909.

26. Hofer A, Siedentopf CM, Ischebeck A, et al. Sex differences in brain activations patterns during processing of positively and negatively valenced emotional words. Psychol Med 2007; 37: 109–119.

27. Hyde JS. The gender similarity hypothesis. Am Psychol 2005; 60: 581–592.

28. Cheng Y, Chou K- H, Decety J, et al. Sex differences in the neuroanatomy of human mirror-neuron system: a voxel based morphometric investigation. Neuroscience 2009; 158: 713–720.

29. Jacobsen T, Schubotz RI, Höfel L, et al. Brain correlates of aesthetic judgement of beauty. Neuroimage 2006; 29: 276–285.

30. Kawabata H, Zeki S. Neural correlates of beauty. J Neurophysiol 2004; 91: 1699–1705.

31. Koscik T, O´Leary D, Moser DJ, et al. Sex differences in parietal lobe morphology: relationship to metal rotation performance. Brain Cogn 2009; 69: 451–459.

32. Koukolík F. Základy sociální, kognitivní a afektivní neurovědy II. Empatie. Prakt. Lék. 2011; 91: 63–67.

33. Koukolík F. Lidský mozek. Funkční systémy. Norma a poruchy, 3. přepracované a rozšířené vydání. Praha: Galén 2012.

34. Lenroot RK, Giedd JN. Sex differences in the adolescent brain. Brain Cogn 2010; 72(1): 46–55. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2009.10.008

35. Lightdale JR, Prentice DA. Rethinking sex differences in aggression: aggressive behavior in the absence of social roles. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 1994; 20: 34–44.

36. Maccoby EE, Jacklin CN. The psychology of sex differences. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press 1974.

37. Mackiewicz KL, Sarinopoulos I, Cleven KL, et al. The effect of anticipation and the specificity of sex differences for amygdala and hippocampus in emotional memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2006, 103: 14200–14205.

38. Ngun TC, Ghahramani N, Sánchez FJ, et al. The genetics of sex differences in brain and behavior. Front Neuroendocrinol 2011; 32: 227–246.

39. Nosek BA, Smyth FL, Sriram N, et al. National differences in gender-science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2009; 106: 10593–10597.

40. Olff M, Langeland W, Draijer N, et al. Gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder Psychol Bull 2007; 133: 184–204.

41. Piefke M, Weiss PH, Markowitsch HJ, et al. Gender differences in the functional neuroanatomy of emotional episodic autobiographic memory. Hum Brain Mapp 2005; 24: 313–324.

42. Stark R, Wolf OT, Tabbert K, et al. Influence of the stress hormone cortisol on fear conditioning in humans: evidence for sex differences in the response of the prefrontal cortex. Neuroimage 2006; 32: 1290–1298.

43. Swaab DF, Garcia-Falgueras A. Sexual differentiation of the human brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation. Funct Neurol 2009; 24: 17–28.

44. Tannen D. You just don´t understand. Women and men in conversation. New York: Ballantine Books 1991.

45. Tian L, Wang J, Yan C, He Y. Hemisphere- and gender-related differences in small-world brain networks: A resting-state functional MRI study. Neuroimage 2011; 54(1): 191–202.

46. Toga AW, Thompson PM. Mapping brain asymmetry. Nat Rev Neurosci 2003; 4: 37–48.

47. Vartanian O, Goel V. Neuroanatomical correlates of aesthetic preference for paintings. Neuroreport 2004; 15(5): 893–897.

48. Wager TD, Phan KL, Liberzon I, et al. Valence, gender, and lateralization of functional brain anatomy in emotion: A meta-analysis of findings from neuroimaging. Neuroimage 2003; 19: 513–531.

49. Witte AV, Savli, M., Holik A, et al. Regional sex differences in grey matter volume are associated with sex hormones in the young adult human brain. Neuroimage 2010; 49: 1205–1212.

Labels
General practitioner for children and adolescents General practitioner for adults
Login
Forgotten password

Enter the email address that you registered with. We will send you instructions on how to set a new password.

Login

Don‘t have an account?  Create new account

#ADS_BOTTOM_SCRIPTS#