Great Graphic: Neural Networks in Men and Women

This Great Graphic is a neural map of a typical brain. It was posted in The Guardian earlier this month.  The first one is representative of men and the second is representative of women. Over a 1000 brains were scanned in a study at the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings show that the male brain is wired strongly between the back and front. The neutral circuitry of the female brain shows a stronger connection between the right and left hemispheres.  

In many ways, the findings lend themselves to the typical sterotypes.  The wiring of the male brain facilitates perception and coordinated action.  The strongest connection between the hemispheres, is in the cerebellum, which is the locus of motor action.  The wiring of the female brain facilitates social skills, memory and multi-tasking.  

Interestingly, the study finds that up until the age of around 13, the male and female brains are similarly wired and that the differentiation is evident by the mid-teen years.  It still, then, seems to beg the question of nature vs nurture.  

In addition, reports of the study do not make it clear if there was a cross-cultural component. As has become increasingly clear over the last couple of years, many such studies extrapolate from work with WERID people, in the sense of Werstern, Educated, Rich, Industrialized Democracies. They might not be representative of the species, after all.