Reuters - December 16, 1999
NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters Health) -- Differences in the way men and women think may be all in the head after all, say brain researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
A research team led by psychiatrist Dr. Godfrey Pearlson, found a larger volume of brain tissue among males compared to females in a part of the brain used to estimate time, judge speed, visualize three-dimensional objects and solve mathematical problems.
"To say this means men are automatically better at some things than women is a simplification," says Pearlson in a statement. "It's easy to find women who are fantastic at math and physics and men who excel in language skills. Only when we look at very large populations for slight but significant trends do we see the generalizations."
The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is published in the December 1999 journal Cerebral Cortex and confirms earlier similar research.
Using sophisticated computer software and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the scientists measured the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) of 15 pairs of men and women matched by factors such as age and race. The IPL is a section of the brain located on both sides of the brain just above the ear.
The computer program, developed by Hopkins' psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Barta, allows scientists to highlight the IPL by "painting" it on a computer image of each subject's brain, and then calculates the volume of this area of the brain.
The total volume of the right and left IPL in the men averaged 46.6 cubic centimeters while the same measurement in the women averaged 38.4 cubic centimeters. After adjusting for men's overall larger head and brain size, a difference of about 6% remained.
The researchers also found that most of the larger volume among the men was located on the left side of the brain, making the men's brains asymmetrical. The volume of the IPL in women's brains, however, measured slightly larger on the right side than the left, but the differences were small.
"Given the finding of a larger left IPL volume in males compared to females, this study provides a possible structural brain basis for... sex-based cognitive differences," Pearlson's team conclude. But give the small number of people included in the study, they call for more research on these intriguing findings.
SOURCE: Cerebral Cortex 1999;9.
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