Many have long suspected that the male and female brains are very different.
Now, researchers at Cambridge University have revealed just what those differences are.
By studying over 20 years of neuroscience research, they were able to create a map showing just how the sexes differ.
The research, published this week in the prestigious journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, took in 218 different studies.
It found that males on average have larger total brain volumes than women, by 8-13%.
On average, males also had larger absolute volumes than females in the intracranial space (12%; >14,000 brains), total brain (11%; 2,523 brains), cerebrum (10%; 1,851 brains), grey matter (9%; 7,934 brains), white matter (13%; 7,515 brains), regions filled with cerebrospinal fluid (11.5%; 4,484 brains), and cerebellum (9%; 1,842 brains).
Looking more closely, researchers found the differences in volume between the sexes were located in several regions.
These included parts of the limbic system, which deals with emotion, and the language system.
The research could have major implications for research into autism and depression.
