{"id":4611,"date":"2021-05-10T15:10:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psychosomatic-osteopathy.com\/differences-between-male-and-female-brains\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T10:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:10:31","slug":"differences-between-male-and-female-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosomatic-osteopathy.com\/en\/differences-between-male-and-female-brains\/","title":{"rendered":"Differences Between Male and Female Brains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Biological sex influences the risk for developing various brain disorders. For example, men are more frequently affected by autism spectrum disorders, while women are more prone to depression (McCarthy 2016, Rutter et al. 2003). Furthermore, individuals also exhibit sex-specific differences in their behavior:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across cultures, men more frequently exhibit aggression (Archer 2004), a higher propensity for risk-taking (Cross et al. 2011), and perform better than women in spatial processing, sensorimotor, and motor speed (Gur et al. 2012).<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Women, on the other hand, perform better than men in attention, emotion perception, verbal and facial memory, reasoning speed, and all social cognition tests (Gur et al. 2012, Olderbak et al. 2019).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These differences are relatively consistent across the lifespan, suggesting a possible contribution of patterned sex differences in brain organization.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Current State of Research<\/h2>\n<p>The data on brain organization available to us today from brain research largely originate from in-vivo neuroimaging studies and focus on sex differences in regional brain anatomy (Ruigrok et al. 2014).&nbsp;On average, men have an approximately 10% larger total brain volume and a larger mean volume of gray matter (GMV), ventral occipitotemporal cortices, amygdala, putamen, and cerebellum than women. Conversely, women show higher mean gray matter volumes for the superior, frontal, and lateral parietal cortices (Ruigrok et al. 2014). These findings reinforce the suspicion that the human brain may exhibit reproducible, sex-specific differences in regional mean gray matter volumes. This, in turn, raises new questions about the possible causes and consequences of this sex-specific brain organization, which are not only controversially discussed but also particularly difficult to answer empirically. To date, however, there is a lack of both a formal test for the reproducibility of regional GMV sex differences in humans in independent samples and a comprehensive comparison of sex-specific regional GMV in humans with the functional neuroanatomy of the human brain (Liu et al. 2020). Recent studies in mice, combining in-vivo neuroimaging and post-mortem gene expression data, have shown that the spatial map of GMV sex differences in mice preferentially correlates with the regional expression of sex-chromosomal genes, as also measured in adult post-mortem brains. A study published last year attempted to test whether sex differences in humans are indeed correlated with the regional expression of sex chromosome genes. The researchers found that the adult human brain exhibits a stereotypical pattern of regional sex differences in GMV that is highly reproducible, and the brain expression of sex chromosome genes is also present in humans. In humans, this spatial coupling is strongest for a number of X- and Y-linked transcriptional regulators with established roles in forebrain development (Qiu et al. 2018). In summary, systematic investigations into sex differences in the human brain have found these differences already in newborns, suggesting that sex differences are likely genetically determined. Although the observed differences are small, they are significant and persist into adulthood.&nbsp;It is important to note here that the maturation of cognitive brain functions always depends on the individual&#8217;s interaction with the environment and ultimately relies on learning processes! The question of the relationship between innate and acquired traits (&#8220;Nature vs. Nurture&#8221;) has long been controversially discussed. Since humans cannot be considered without their environment, they are not suitable from a scientific perspective for empirically answering this question. Another important factor in explaining differences between the sexes is certainly gender-role-dependent socialization. The reason for this is the neuroplasticity of the brain, i.e., the brain&#8217;s ability to adapt to new stimuli. Thus, long-term socialization experiences can shape brain organization.<strong>References<\/strong>Archer J. Sex differences in aggression in real-world settings: A meta-analytic review. <i>Rev Gen Psychol<\/i>. 2004;8(4):291-322Cross CP, Copping LT, Campbell A. Sex differences in impulsivity: A meta-analysis Catharine. <i>Psychol Bull<\/i>. 2011;137(1):97Gur RC, Richard J, Calkins ME, et al. Age group and sex differences in performance on a computerized neurocognitive battery in children age 8\u2212 21. <i>Neuropsychology<\/i>. 2012;26(2):251Liu S, Seidlitz J, Blumenthal JD, et al. Integrative structural, functional, and transcriptomic analyses of sex-biased brain organization in humans. <i>Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A<\/i>. 2020;117(31):18788-18798McCarthy MM. Multifaceted origins of sex differences in the brain. <i>Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci<\/i>. 2016;371(1688):20150106Olderbak S, Wilhelm O, Hildebrandt A, et al. Sex differences in facial emotion perception ability across the lifespan. <i>Cogn Emot<\/i>. 2019;33(3):579-588Qiu LR, Fernandes DJ, Szulc-Lerch KU, et al. Mouse MRI shows brain areas relatively larger in males emerge before those larger in females. <i>Nat Commun<\/i>. 2018;9(1)Ruigrok ANV, Salimi-Khorshidi G, Lai MC, et al. A meta-analysis of sex differences in human brain structure. <i>Neurosci Biobehav Rev<\/i>. 2014;39:34-50Rutter M, Caspi A, Moffitt TE. Using sex differences in psychopathology to study causal mechanisms: unifying issues and research strategies. <i>J child Psychol psychiatry<\/i>. 2003;44(8):1092-1115                  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biological sex influences the risk for developing various brain disorders. For example, men are more frequently affected by autism spectrum disorders, while women are more prone to depression (McCarthy <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"Male vs. Female Brain: Clinical Relevance","_seopress_titles_desc":"Gender-specific brain differences and their influence on autism, depression & co. 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