Study: Female Brains Are Smaller Than Male Brains, But Used More Efficiently

[Cincinnatus]

SACRAMENTO (CBS Sacramento) - The findings of a new study reveal that, while women do have smaller brains than men, women use the grey matter they do have more efficiently than their male counterparts.
 
According to The Daily Mail, a team of researchers from both the University of California and abroad in Madrid made the observation while trying to reconcile the discrepancy between male and female brain size and the equality of intelligence between the genders.
 
The female brain is reportedly 8 percent smaller than the male brain, on average.

Researchers involved in the study specifically observed the different roles the region of the brain known as the hippocampus – which is a center of emotional and memory function in the brain – play in men and women.
 
In men, a larger hippocampus allegedly results in an increased presence of neurons. The influx then leads to a higher intelligence in men.
 
In women, however, it appeared that the smaller the hippocampus was, the smarter the woman in question would residually be, leading researchers to believe that the brain matter of women operates in a more efficient manner.
 
“At this structural level, females might show greater efficiency requiring less neural material for achieving behavioral results on a par with males,” researchers were quoted as writing in the published version of their study, which was said to have appeared in the journal Intelligence.
 
The Daily Mail learned that 59 women and 45 men participated in the study. All of them were between the ages of 18 and 27.
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/03/04/study-female-brains-are-smaller-than-male-brains-but-used-more-efficiently/

103 comments so far and counting.
 











 
















 


















 

[Relic]

I find this sort of thing curious. Anyone who would deny that there is a difference between men and women is either willfully ignorant, or flat out stupid. A difference doesn't make one better than the other, just different.

The need to measure, quantify and categorize is simply wasted time.

[Oceander]

There are definitely differences between men and women - some of them quite nice, and some quite frustrating - but just because there are differences does not make one gender inferior - or superior - to the other.  After all, just because apples are great doesn't mean that oranges aren't great too; it just means that there's no point in comparing apples to oranges.  The same goes for men and women.

That there are differences is no clearer than on the playground with little children.  When they're little kids, boys and girls might as well be from different planets, let alone different species.  Little girls are quite adept at mastering fairly sophisticated social dynamics; little boys are like billiard balls, and are adept at mastering physical tasks easily.  But if each is respected and allowed to develop as themselves, they become quite complementary in the end.

To be a little cliched, men and women are like the yin and yang of oriental philosophy; each best within its own sphere, but not sufficient unto itself to make a complete unity.

[massadvj]

There are definitely differences between men and women - some of them quite nice, and some quite frustrating - but just because there are differences does not make one gender inferior - or superior - to the other.  After all, just because apples are great doesn't mean that oranges aren't great too; it just means that there's no point in comparing apples to oranges.  The same goes for men and women.

What if I like BOTH apples and oranges?  Does that mean... oh, never mind.

[famousdayandyear]

I find this sort of thing curious. Anyone who would deny that there is a difference between men and women is either willfully ignorant, or flat out stupid. A difference doesn't make one better than the other, just different.

The need to measure, quantify and categorize is simply wasted time.

A comparison between the brick-like satellite phone and the contemporary iphone comes to mind.  The iphone is way smaller, but much more efficient.  Is it then, not "smarter"?  ie, the 'smart phone'?  Just sayin

[Oceander]

What if I like BOTH apples and oranges?  Does that mean... oh, never mind.

It means you swing both ways, or play both sides of the fence - or you just like fruit!