HONG KONG: Most brains have a mixture of ‘male’ and ‘female’ traits, research by scientists at Tel Aviv university finds
It has long been an accepted mantra that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
But if you look at the overall structure of the brain, they are generally the same, a new study suggests.
While specific parts show sex differences, an individual brain only rarely has all “male” traits or all “female” traits, researchers say.
The human brain is more likely to have a mixture of the two, with some aspects more common in women, some more common in men, and some that are common in both.
This contradicts the idea that brains can be neatly divided into two sex-based categories, the authors of the research conclude.
Daphna Joel, from the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, said: “It is a very popular belief, even among scientists, that brains have a male and female form. What we were interested in is looking at the entire brain.
“Even if there are differences, does it mean brains come in two different forms?”
Their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved taking MRI scans of more than 1,400 brains, focusing on anatomy rather than how brains work.
They analysed brain features like tissue thickness or volume in different parts of the brain. They focused on traits that showed the biggest sex differences, dividing the scores into a predominantly male zone, a predominantly female zone, and an intermediate range.
Researchers found that it was rare for brains to fall into one of these three distinct categories- just six per cent of brains they analysed could be placed in one particular group.
