Female Brain vs. Male Brain

Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA indicates that the human brain does not have a fixed gender. According to the Washington Post, contrary to popular belief, one cannot say that the brains of individuals operate based on gender, with male brains being 'male' and female brains being 'female.' The brain does not fit into this gender binary and exhibits behavior distinct from the individual's bodily gender. This is not only good news for scientists but also for gender specialists and individuals who define themselves beyond the binary of 'woman' or 'man.' This is because it no longer makes practical sense to say that individuals must be either male or female. The researchers state that while the classified differences regarding the genitalia of both male and female genders have always been recognized, how these differences affect individuals biologically is still not fully understood. Structural differences in the brain and behavioral differences have often been used as evidence for the complete difference between male and female brains. However, these researchers argue that if this were true, male brains should almost always function in a male manner and female brains in a female manner, and this change should be stable. To observe this, scientists at Tel Aviv University scanned the brains of 1,400 individuals using MRI and found that individuals' brains are more 'floating' between these two genders than strictly male or female. This is the first time scientists have studied the issue of gender and the brain as a whole (rather than studying parts of the brain such as the differences in white and gray matter in men and women). Dr. Liz Elliott, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois, states that this type of study is somewhat unique in its kind. The researchers found that only a very small number of the studied brain samples were completely female or male, and the majority of brains possessed characteristics of both genders. The results of this study indicate that brains that consistently exhibit completely female or male characteristics are very rare, while most brains are a 'mosaic' of male and female features. This mosaic varies from individual to individual. Dr. Bruce McEwan tells New Scientist magazine, 'We are beginning to understand the complexity of what we have traditionally called the female or male brain. Studies like this are the first step towards changing people's minds on this issue.' Dr. Jafna Noel, one of the authors of this research, hopes that this study will help eliminate gender stereotypes in various societies. She states, 'We always separate girls and boys, women and men. But this is not only politically incorrect, but we now know that scientifically, this separation is also not correct.'