INTERESTING FACTS ON THE FEMALE BRAIN

Imagine that the sperm that manages to penetrate the undulating egg carries an x chromosome, result the fertilised egg is a GIRL. In the course of just thrity eight weeks, we would then see this girl grow from a group of cells that could fit on the head of a pin to an infant who weighs on average seven pounds or so and possesses the machinery necessary to live outside her Mother's body. But the majority of the brain development that determines her sex specific circuits happens during the first eighteen weeks of pregnancy. Until eight weeks old, every fetal brain looks FEMALE - females is nature's gender default setting. If you were to watch a female and a male brain developing via time lapse photography, you would see thier circuit diagrams being laid down according to the blueprint drafted by both genes and sex hormones. Ahuge testosterone surge beginning in the eight week will turn this unisex brain male by killing off some cells in the communication centres and growing more cells in the sex and agression centres. If the testosterone surge doesn't happen, the female brain continues to grow unperturbed. The fetal girl's brain cells sprout more connections in the communications centres and areas that process emotions. How does this fetal fork in the road affect us ? For one thing, because of her larger communication centre, this girl will grow up to be more talkative than her brother. In most social contexts, she will use many more forms of communication than he will. For another, it defines our innate biological destiny, colouring the lens through which rach of us views and engages with the world.

READING EMOTION EQUALS READING REALITY

Just about the first thing the female brain compels a baby to do is to study faces. Smiling, gazing, mirroring faces and sounds, bonding. Over the first three months of life, a baby girl's skills in eye contact and mutual face gazing will increase by 400 per cent, whereas facial gazing skills in boys during this time does not increase at all. Baby girls are born interested in emotional expression. They take meaning about themselves from a look, a touch, every reaction from the people they cme into contact with. From these cues they discover whether they are worth, lovable, or annoying. But take away the sign posts that an expressive face provides and then you have taken away the female brain's main touchstone for reality. Little girls do not tolerate flat faces. They interpret an emotionless face that's turned towards them as a signal that they are not doing something right. Little girls will go after the face until they get a response. The girls will think that if they do it just right, they'll get the reaction they expect. It's the same kind of instinct that keeps a grown woman going after a narcissistic or otherwise emotionally unavailable man. 'If I do it right, he'll love me.'

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE MALE BRAIN