Secrets Of The Sexes 1. Brainsex (14 of 26)

Secrets Of The Sexes

The only real way forward is to realise we are different, we process this sort of information differently, and how are we gonna make that work.
Until recently scientists were reluctant to acknowledge any sex differences.
Partly because of history.
In 1879 Gustav LeBon, the founding father of psychology announced that intelligent women are so rare that they are as exceptional as the birth of any monstrosity, as for example, a gorilla with two heads.
Consequently we men neglect them entirely.
And that, 125 years ago, was medical fact.
If l bring out a male brain and put it next to a female brain you can see er there's very little differences in any of the structures on the surface of the brain.

The only difference really between these two is their size.
And, ah, in general female brains are a little bit smaller.
So the er explanation for this is that men tend to be bigger.
And so this is in proportion to that difference in body size.
l don't think anyone's going to suggest that a small man is any less intelligent than a large man.
Having said that, there have been a number of er studies to suggest that certain areas of the brain might be slightly different in size.
And the biggest areas of difference appear to be in language processing, and also in this part of the frontal lobe which is important in visio-spacial processing.
And this might be the basis for some of the er functional differences we see between men and women.
Ah, they may just be wired up differently.
Dub.
In this test Tim is listening to made-up words.
Bok.
Different sounds are played to each ear at the same time...
Bub.
...but Tim only hears one of them.
Gab.