If cultural theories about sex gender can’t completely explain why men and women seem to differ, then what can? Recent advancements in neuroimaging has allowed us to take a deeper look at the brain. With technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which lets us see the structure of the brain, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, scientists have the ability to map the brain much more accurately than what has been possible before. Studies of the brain have shown that while the brains of men and women are remarkably similar, there exist many subtle but important differences in brain structure and activity between the sexes. By studying these differences we can gain a clearer picture of the
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The amygdalae play a key role in our emotional processing, in particular how we respond to fear, pleasure and sexual arousal, how we retain emotional memory, and the regulation of our fight-or-flight response. The amygdala is the most sexually dimorphic part of the brain, it is much larger in men than in women, even when controlled for differences in brain size, and it has a high concentration of sex hormone receptors. These factors seem to create a large functional difference in the amygdala between men and …show more content…
Comparing fMRIs of subjects watching pornographic videos to subjects watching non-pornographic videos shows that amygdala is much more active when watching pornographic material. The size of the amygdala is also associated with arousal. A study done on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy who had undergone surgery on the temporal lobe found that patients with a large part of their amygdala remaining after the surgery reported having a higher sex drive than patients with a lower volume volume of remaining amygdala.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14705116. Since men have a much larger amygdala than women this could explain why men seem to have a higher sex drive than women.
One of the largest differences we can see in brain composition between men and women is the proportion of grey matter to white matter. Grey and white matter are the two different types of brain tissues. Grey matter contains the cell bodies of neurons and the synapses between them, while white matter consists of the axons that connect neurons together and transmit information between them.
A study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles of 24 male subjects and 24 female subjects with matched brain sizes, as well as 24 males and 24 females with brains considerably different in size showed that women have a significantly higher proportion of grey matter compared to men, regardless of brain size. This suggests that the brain differences
The amygdalae play a key role in our emotional processing, in particular how we respond to fear, pleasure and sexual arousal, how we retain emotional memory, and the regulation of our fight-or-flight response. The amygdala is the most sexually dimorphic part of the brain, it is much larger in men than in women, even when controlled for differences in brain size, and it has a high concentration of sex hormone receptors. These factors seem to create a large functional difference in the amygdala between men and …show more content…
Comparing fMRIs of subjects watching pornographic videos to subjects watching non-pornographic videos shows that amygdala is much more active when watching pornographic material. The size of the amygdala is also associated with arousal. A study done on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy who had undergone surgery on the temporal lobe found that patients with a large part of their amygdala remaining after the surgery reported having a higher sex drive than patients with a lower volume volume of remaining amygdala.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14705116. Since men have a much larger amygdala than women this could explain why men seem to have a higher sex drive than women.
One of the largest differences we can see in brain composition between men and women is the proportion of grey matter to white matter. Grey and white matter are the two different types of brain tissues. Grey matter contains the cell bodies of neurons and the synapses between them, while white matter consists of the axons that connect neurons together and transmit information between them.
A study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles of 24 male subjects and 24 female subjects with matched brain sizes, as well as 24 males and 24 females with brains considerably different in size showed that women have a significantly higher proportion of grey matter compared to men, regardless of brain size. This suggests that the brain differences