Neuroscientist: There is no such thing as a "female brain"

[davidn3600]

A LEADING academic has rebuffed claims that male and female brains are wired differently – and branded the idea that men are from Mars and women are from Venus as "trash".

Studies into the human brain need to stop focusing on what sex they are, neuroscientist Gina Rippon said.

Studies down the decades have claimed that women are better at social skills, remembering things and multi-tasking – while men are more aggressive, better at maths and worse at listening.

However, Professor Rippon, of Aston University, said that gender differences come from environmental factors.

Speaking at the British Science Festival, which is taking place in Swansea, she said: "There is no such thing as a male or female brain.

"There is no one aspect of the brain even which if a scientist looked at it they could tell whether it came from a man or a woman.

"We shouldn't be talking about sex differences in the brain. The brain is a mosaic and every brain is different for every individual.

"Using our neuroscience resources to measure differences is actually a waste of time. It's more interesting to see what makes individual brains different."

Prof Rippon believes that studies claiming differences between males and females are due to cultural and environmental factors.

She said that women become "wired" for multi-tasking not because of anything innate, but because that is what society expects of them.

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"Not only are we feeding the 'neuro-trash' industry misunderstanding about what we do, but we are also feeding the inner wimp of people out there who believe that they can or can't do something based on whether they are male or female."

http://www.irishnews.com/news/2016/09/07/news/no-such-thing-as-male-or-female-brain-says-neuroscientist-684632/

[ck4829]

1. K&R

It's an extension of the socially constructed gender binary.

[Egnever]

2. As someone with both male and female kids

I don't buy what this woman is selling.

I believe her when she says you could not tell the difference by looking at them but that is only part of the story. Males and females have different hormone levels that could certainly account for different brain behavior.

We tried hard to provide as gender neutral an environment as we could and it quickly became apparent our children gravitated to their traditional behaviors in spite of that. When it became obvious we gave up on the gender neutral idea.

[lostnfound]

3. i lose directional / navigation sense about six days a month

I can get incredibly lost, even in familiar places, on "low-T" days.