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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingThis may come as no shock, but men and women really do think differently. Thanks to advances in science and new brain imaging techniques, we're learning just how different men and women are.
Men and women are more than ninety-nine percent exactly the same, genetically speaking.. But when it comes to their brains, a bay area scientist argues men and women are astoundingly different, and those differences, she says, begin before a baby's even born.
Dr. Louann Brizendine, Neurophyschiatrist: "We have different circuits, different genes and different hormones that run the circuits in our brains"
Dr. Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist at UCSF is author of "The Female Brain", a compilation of two decades worth of brain research.
The most important organ in the body is the brain, we all know that. Dr. Brizendine says while male and female brains have the same amount of brain cells, they're wired, structured and fueled differently, leading to unique talents.
Dr. Louann Brizendine: "The brain structure in the female brain quickly puts words to emotions, a little faster than the male brains, as far as we know."
In the female brain, some structures are larger if not more active, making women better at weighing options, and more prone to worrying, more patient and less aggressive, more intuitive and able to read nonverbal cues, and better at remembering emotional events in greater detail.
Lots of couples know that the female remembers every detail of some fight they had, where she was standing, what was around, what time of the year, even what the date was. And the guy doesn't honestly remember that it happened at all except that she's telling him it did.
After giving birth, women transition into a mommy brain, where they focus more attention on raising a family. After menopause women become more focused on themselves. It's a time they're more likely to initiate a divorce. Their brain circuits are fueled by a different cocktail of hormones.
Dr. Kim cautions that we should not use this research as an excuse for sexual stereotyping. No matter what the differences in our brains, they do not hardwire us into a gender-specific destiny.
