Published on
Updated
Reading 3 min.
It’s an idea that has existed since the dawn of time and American scientists have just provided proof: men and women have brains that don’t work quite in the same way. These conclusions were able to be established by the researchers using artificial intelligence software.
Have you always thought that men and women function differently? This is indeed the case and the proof is provided by the conclusions of a new scientific study on the subject, carried out by researchers at Stanford University, in California.
Brains that we thought were strictly identical, until now
This study, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, therefore sheds new light on the brain according to the sex of the individual.
Indeed, until now, by studying brain structures, the way in which the different brain areas are organized and their functioning, scientists in general have always agreed that male and female brains are strictly identical, their way of functioning that simply varies from one individual to another. It therefore seems that this is no longer the case.
Differences in functioning between men and women
To reach this conclusion, American researchers trained a “deep neural network” – which is an artificial intelligence system – by submitting more than a thousand functional MRIs to it. This imaging makes it possible to quantify brain activity in different areas and also allows us to see the brain connections between them. Each time, the researchers indicated whether the MRI images came from the brain of a man or a woman.
Results: thanks to this algorithm, the experts were able to predict in 90% of cases whether the brain whose MRI images showed functioning belonged to a woman or a man. “Our study provides compelling evidence for the existence of reproducible and generalizable sex differences in the functional organization of the human brain” says Vinod Menon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who led this new work. “Identifying sex differences in the adult human brain in a consistent and replicable manner is a key step toward better understanding the respective vulnerabilities of both sexes.”
A particular area of the brain helps determine one’s sex
The scientists didn’t stop there. By trying to understand how the artificial intelligence algorithm determined the “brain sex” presented in the fMRI images, they were able to establish the brain communication networks that most influenced the AI in its decision. They thus determined that this mainly played out within a particular structure, the striatum and within the limbic system. This system governs emotions in humans, but is also involved in learning or responding to rewards.
Prejudices about men and women studied by science
This is not the first time that science has taken an interest in the differences between men and women. It is known that men’s brains are slightly heavier than women’s (1,370 kg compared to 1,270 kg).
And behaviorally, previous work has already reported differences, finding that men are funnier and have a better sense of direction, while women have better memory and language skills.
Regarding humor, in 2019, psychologists from Aberystwyth University and the University of North Carolina reviewed two dozen studies, which measured participants’ humor. The results showed that men’s humor was rated 63% higher than women’s. Which does not mean, however, that “every man is funnier than every woman” underline – with humor – the authors of this work.
Other work, recently published by a team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, focused on the sense of direction. They showed it was better in humans, due to “encouraging boys to play outside”, which would sharpen their ability to map the environment.
Concerning memory and language, studies tend to show better results in women than in men. So many differences confirmed by this study, which demonstrates that the brains of men and women are indeed different.
Slide: These diseases that affect men and women differently