Women have known it for generations – and the proof has finally arrived. Scientists have found that the female brain is ‘hard-wired’ to be better at multitasking.
Men’s brains, in comparison, are better at concentrating on single complex tasks – whether it be reading a map or cooking a meal.
Scientists scanned the brains of 949 young men and women in the biggest investigation of its kind to date. Using hi-tech diffusion MRI imaging, they mapped the connections between the different parts of the brains.
The researchers discovered that women have far better connections between the left and right sides of the brain, while men display more intense activity within the brain’s individual parts, especially in the cerebellum, which controls motor skills.
Men also have better connections between the front and back of the brain, giving them a better ability to quickly perceive information and use it immediately to carry out complex tasks.
This means they are better at things such as learning to swim or, as the old bone of contention has it, parking a car. Women are better at, for example, remembering a face, which means making connections between different parts of the brain.
The results are likely to be seen as supporting the theory behind best-selling pop psychology book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus – that the sexes are as different as alien races.
Dr Ragini Verma, who carried out the study with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, said: ‘Of course individuals will differ, always.
‘But we said, if you take 1,000 people and analyse the data statistically, what would the male brain look like and what would the female brain look like?’
She explained: ‘The research shows that if women and men are given a task that involves both logical thinking and intuitive thinking, women will do it better – they are better at connecting the left and the right sides of the brain.
‘If you have an instant action to be performed and you need to do it now, male brains are more attuned to it because the front-back action is more intensely connected.’
Speaking about men’s aptitude for motor skills, she said: ‘The intense activity in the cerebellum means men would be better at learning to ride a bike, learning to swim, reading maps.’
Dr Verma said: ‘If you had to do a task like remembering a face, picking somebody out in a party that would require you to connect several parts of the brain. Where did I see that face last, what do I see in this person, do I remember this person from somewhere?
‘That requires the connection of various sub-networks in the brain – something women are better able to do.’
She said that although it has been known for some time that abilities differ by gender, the study showed that these differences are ‘hard-wired’.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also revealed that the difference between genders became pronounced only after puberty.
