It's official - Men are linear, Women are parallel

astro · January 21, 2005, 3:36am

Genders really do think differently - Men use more gray matter, women use more white

Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study.

The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.

Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.

“These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,” said Haier, adding that, “by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain.”

The results are detailed in the online version of the journal NeuroImage.

Chairman_Pow · January 21, 2005, 4:37am

I’m surprised they didn’t throw out a white meat/dark meat joke.

AskNott · January 21, 2005, 6:42am

I use mostly the plaid and pinstriped matter.

danceswithcats · January 21, 2005, 7:07am

Overly-negative people use anti-matter.

Extremely apathetic people use itdoesn’t-matter.

zephyrine · January 21, 2005, 7:40am

danceswithcats

Fish · January 21, 2005, 9:27am

And very very smart people who went to college use alma-matter.

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow don’t hit.

danceswithcats · January 21, 2005, 9:36am

Would poets and writers use iambic penta-matter? :dubious:

Calabi_Yau · January 21, 2005, 10:26am

Concerned Greek people use wadsamadder?

wheelie · January 21, 2005, 1:13pm

Would that mean Goth people use dark matter?

wheelie · January 21, 2005, 1:32pm

Err… Depressed Goth physicists perhaps?

i will not post before coffee i will not post before coffee i will not post before coffee

slortar · January 21, 2005, 3:14pm

I think in tweed.

Kythereia · January 21, 2005, 5:49pm

I think in rainbow colours!

ShibbOleth · January 21, 2005, 6:09pm

You’d better cut down on the Skittles then.

I’d love to see if this holds true with transgendered individuals (although I assume the tests must be posthumous?)