Is your brain different from your opposite sex? A new study says it isn't so.
As far as the structures of the brain are concerned, there's no such thing as an all-male or all-female characteristics, suggested a study conducted by Israel researchers.
For the study, the researchers worked with MRI scans of the brain of participants whose ages ranged between 18 and 79 years old. They compared these scans based on more than a hundred regions or sections. The team then looked for any traits that can be attributed to either sex.
Of all the scans, less than 10% can be associated with either mostly male or mostly female characteristics based on 10 categories. So far, there's no trait that can be described as truly distinctive among men or women. When these mostly male or mostly female characteristics were then compared to brains that showed a mixture of both traits, they discovered that regardless of the threshold, the results remained the same: more brains will have the combined trait that more male or female characteristics. They also obtained the same results when they decided to analyze brain scans that focused on gray matter thickness of the outer part of the brain's cerebrum, among others.
The researchers went further by comparing their newfound data with the results of two previous large studies participated by more than 400 men and women. Based on the data, more than 50% shared common traits while less than 2% can be considered as predominantly male or female.
Granted, each brain can be wired differently than the others. Moreover, the study focuses on the structure of the brain, not on how the brains work, which may tell a huge difference on how men and women learn, interact, or do certain activities.
Nevertheless, the researchers think that this study shows that human brains, at least their structure, may not be too different whether you're male or female.
