The Thinking Brain in Two Directions
Are men are more intelligent than women? Or … do men and women think differently in terms of general intelligence?
On a matter of overall intelligence behavior, the argument of gender superiority is passé. The debate has moved on to do men and women think differently, and if so, how do they think differently?
Research from Professor Richard Haier of University of California, Irvine and neuropsychologist Rex Jung, of University New Mexico (NeuroImage online) found that men and women think differently based on brain anatomy.
Men have nearly 6.5 times more gray brain matter related to general intelligence.
Women by contrast have nearly 10 times more white brain matter related to intelligence then men.
- Men = more gray brain matter
- Women = more white brain matter
Gray matter is brain tissue made up of cell bodies of nerve cells. The amount of gray matter can be inherited as well as being influenced by environmental factors. The density of gray matter correlates to certain skills and abilities and appears to act as brain processing centers. According to Jung, this may explain why men are better at localized processing such as mathematics.
White brain matteris brain tissue made of the myelin covered nerve bundles which connects to the various gray brain matter areas. They act as the communication carriers for the nerve impulses.
According to Haier, the larger white brain tissue in women aids better integration and assimilation of information from the various gray matter processing centers, including language skills.
It seems men and women each have their own brain processing system that provides both with comparable general intelligence. But, each processing system has its own thinking pathway. That must explain why each other thinks the other does not truly understand them.
To summarize we can say that men and women do think differently, and it’s nice to have research confirm what we have concluded from personal experience. In addition, the difference in brain anatomy between gray and white brain matter starts to give us an idea of how differently.
One last point. In defense of women I think (that’s my white brain matter talking) women also have more to think about. Here’s a visual which seems to confirm this very phenomenon.
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By Joyce Hansen