Question: Is there evidence that there is no such a thing as a male brain or a female brain?

submitted by AllInOne from (self.GenderCritical)

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]jet199 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There is such things as male or female brains but so far none of those differences have been connected to personalities or behaviour because likely those functions are very complex and on a very small scale.

The most obvious difference is that men have bigger brains, even when accounting for body size, while women have more grey matter. It's likely men's brains just have more padding, white matter, to protect from head injuries. In theory this could mean women's brains are more efficient but that's not been proved. You do certainty find a lot of fast thinking women.

Sophie Scott at UCL is a good person to talk to about this. I won't link directly but her contact details are on the university's website.

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think that this is the important point. I used to study and work in psychology/neurobiology, and I’ve gone out of my way to read some of the studies that get thrown around to support “gendered” brains. These studies do not make any real assertions about gendered feelings or behavior. They simply point out that there may be structural differences between male and female brains. Is it possible that structural differences do, in fact, influence or correspond to gendered behavior? It’s possible. But it’s also possible, like you said, that it’s on a small scale or makes no difference at all. To say that these studies prove that there is such a thing as a girlbrain or boybrain is taking it one (or several) steps too far and misrepresents the findings.

[–]Lucretia 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, she’s good, and neuroscientist Daphna Joel has written a lot on this as well.