Review article
The brain has sex
Daniela Malnar
; Zavod za anatomiju, Medicinski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci, Rijeka
Juraj Arbanas
; Zavod za anatomiju, Medicinski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci, Rijeka
Mladenka Tkalčić
; Odsjek za psihologiju, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci, Rijeka
Abstract
The brain is a complex organ and different morphology of the brain of men and women is an ongoing topic of great interest. Many times we set a question why girls prefer to play with dolls and boys with cars? Why men and women react differently to the same stressful situations? Are women more emotional than men? Psychological research of behavior, perception and memory, found that the obvious differences in brain function of women and men do indeed exist. These differences can be attributed to genetics, hormones and environment. Men and women do not show a difference when it comes to intelligence testing, but the fact is that many things they do differently and use different parts of the brain when solving problems. Sex differences in the brain structure may influence the process of learning and speech. Knowledge of gender differences can be helpful in making the diagnosis and treatment of certain neurological diseases. Many studies of gender differences, especially studies on the ratio of gray and white matter and the size of the largest commissure of the brain, the corpus callosum, show conflicting results, which primarily depend on the method of research. However, there are areas of the brain, such as the hypothalamus and certain parts of the brain cortex, where the sexual dimorphism is very clearly expressed and defined. This paper outlines previous research and established morphological differences of the brain between women and men.
Keywords
human brain; gender differences
Hrčak ID:
148234
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2015.
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