The Female Brain

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The Female Brain

Author	Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Publisher	Morgan Road Books
Released	2006
Media Type	Hardcover
Pages	187, 210 including notes.
ISBN	ISBN 0-7679-2009-0

'The Female Brain' is a book by Louann Brizendine, M.D. whose main thesis is that women’s behavior is radically different from that of men due to hormonal differences. Brizendine argues that the human female brain is affected by the following hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin), neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin), and difference in architecture of the brain (prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdale) that regulates such hormones and neurotransmitters. These hormones have a life cycle of their own defining specific passages in a women's life including, puberty, and menopause. The book was not factchecked, and the author culled some of her most supportive statistics from self-help gurus who seem to have fabricated them (see Fact-checking the Female Brain). At the beginning of the book, the author created a table that depicts her views on human female neuropsychological development. A summary of this table is depicted below.

Phases of a Woman's Life

Phase	Hormone Change	What Female have that male don't	Specific brain changes	Reality change
Fetal	Brain growth unperturbed by high testosterone of a male brain	Brain cells are XX, more genes for fast brain development	Brain circuits for communication and emotional memory grow unabated by high testosterone level of males	More brains circuits for communications and reading emotions; able to use both sides of brain
Girlhood	Estogen is secreted in massive amounts from 6 to 24 months old	High estrogen for up to 2 years after birth	Verbal and emotional circuits are enhanced	Major interest in playing with other girls
Puberty	Estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone increase and begin monthly cycle	More estrogen and less testosterone; girls' brains develop 2 years earlier than boys'	Increased sensitivity and growth of emotion and sex circuits	Major focus on sexual attractiveness and love interests, avoidance of parents
Sexual maturity	Estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone change daily	More focus on finding a lifelong mate, and choosing a career compatible with raising a family	Earlier maturation of decision making and emotional control circuits	Major interests in finding a mate, love, career development
Pregnancy	Huge increase in progesterone, estrogen	Focus on nesting and less on career and competition	Brain calmed by progesterone	Major interest in own physical well being, coping with fatigue, nausea, and hunger; surviving in the workplace; and planning maternity leave
Child rearing	Oxytocin; cycling estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone	Less interest in sex, more worry about child rearing	Increased function of worry and emotional bonding circuits	Major interest in well being, education, and safety of kids; coping with work stress
Perimenopause	Erratically cycling estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone	Fluctuating libido and sleep, fatigue, moods, hot flashes, and irritability	Decreasing sensitivity to estrogen in certain brain circuits	Major interest is coping with physical and emotional ups and downs
Menopause	Low estrogen and no progesterone	The last precipitous brain change caused by hormones	Circuits fueled by estrogen, oxytocin, and progesterone decline	Major interest in staying healthy, and embracing new challenges
Postmenopause	Low and steady estrogen and testosterone; lower oxytocin	More calmness	Circuits less reactive to stress, less emotional	Major interest in doing what self wants to do; less interest in taking care of others

Brizendine book includes seven chapters. Each chapter is dedicated to either a specific slice of a woman’s life such as puberty, motherhood, and menopause or a specific dimension of a women’s emotional life such as feelings, love & trust, and sex. The book also includes three interesting appendices on hormone therapy, postpartum depression, and sexual orientation.

Contents 1 Main differences between the female and male brains 2 The impact of motherhood on the female brain 3 Love and Sex 4 Menopause 5 The Lawrence Summers issue 6 Supportive authors 7 Criticism of the book 8 References

[edit] Main differences between the female and male brains

The author sees neurological differences between men and women as significant enough that it makes sense to speak of a "female brain" and a "male brain". She believes that the former has larger resources dedicated to communication and emotion, which she deduces from the fact that the female hippocampus is larger than the male, and that the "female brain" has 11% more neurons dedicated to language.^{[this source's credibility needs verifying]} On the other hand, she claims that men have two and a half times the brain resources dedicated to sex.^{[this source's credibility needs verifying]} Testosterone level is a differentiator between male and female as it is so much lower in women. As a result, the author sees women as being cooperative, less competitive, less aggressive, more concerned with emotion of others, and more focused on the group than the self alone. She sees men as being 20 times more aggressive. Finally, Brizendine believes that men think about sex far more often and their sex drive is far higher.

According to Brizendine, during their teens the differentiation between the female and male brain is significant. Girls, according to the author, speak faster and two to three times as much as boys. She argues that girls need social connection and ongoing communication opportunities. When those are lacking, a girl after puberty is twice as vulnerable as a boy to depression, according to Brizendine. On the other hand, because of lesser developed communication skills^{[this source's credibility needs verifying]} boys are a lot more at risk for autism.

[edit] The impact of motherhood on the female brain

Per the author, a woman's brain is altered forever after motherhood to enhance the survival of her children. The author analyzes the related metamorphosis of the women's brain in technical detail at the hormonal level.

[edit] Love and Sex

The author also addresses at length love and sex. Her findings based on neuroscience confirm some the clichés we have that women look for economic stability and loyalty in men. While men look for sexiness. Women's focus is nesting. Men's is fertility. However, Brizendine indicates things get more complex. Women do want long-term relationship with loyal and caring providers. However, they occasionally do reproduce with a philanderer who appears to have superior genes. Brizendine states that 10% of children are fathered by such philanderers without the his knowledge. Superior genes are characteristics of males who have greater symmetry in their body and face. In plain English, this means men who are more handsome. Apparently, this has been confirmed by countless studies. Also, interestingly enough, the loyalty of a male seems incredibly predetermined by the length of a certain gene (vasopressin)--the longer, the more loyal.

[edit] Menopause

The chapter on menopause and the mature women suggests that marriages go through a rebalancing of the roles if they are to survive. The changing hormonal balance, including the drop off in estrogen, triggers a marked reduction in nurturing behavior. Nurturing children and husband becomes really tasking. Postmenopausal women substitute nurturing with self-actualization. This is especially pronounced if the kids are out of college and the husband is retired and expects three meals a day. The terms of the marriage need to be renegotiated if the marriage is to survive. Counter to the public's perception it is women who initiate 65% of the divorces among couples over 50.

[edit] The Lawrence Summers issue

Early in the book Brizendine addresses Lawrence Summers' remark that women are underrepresented in mathematics and scientific fields because when comparing men vs. women, even though their average ability may be the same, women's variability (or standard deviation) was lower. Thus, few women reached the top echelons of those fields. Brizendine rebuts Summers by indicating that girls' and boys' ability and variability are the same through their teen years. Brizendine states that fewer women reach the top echelon in the mentioned fields because their brain wiring makes them more social and they do not seek lonesome scientific pursuits.

[edit] Supportive authors

• Daniel Goleman author of Emotional Intelligence.
• Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Wisdom of Menopause.

[edit] Criticism of the book

Nature' review of the book was quite critical, calling The Female Brain a "melodrama" "riddled with scientific errors" and "fail[ing] to meet even the most basic standards of scientific accuracy and balance"^[1] Furthermore, the authors state that:

Human sex differences are elevated almost to the point of creating different species, yet virtually all differences in brain structure, and most differences in behaviour, are characterized by small average differences and a great deal of male–female overlap at the individual level.^[1]

David H. Peterzell ^[2], a Cognitive and Clinical psychologist, expressed numerous reservations about the book. One of his main objections is that Brizendine conveys certainty about differences in brain structure, including differences in hormonal levels and behavior. Peterzell argues that this is weak science and that the author should have instead studied the relationship between brain structure and behavior from a statistical standpoint, in order to uncover correlations between the two. But, as he argues, correlations are not certainties. Peterzell was also uncomfortable with Brizendine's frequent references to the antidepressant Zoloft. Peterzell felt that amounted to not so subtle product placement throughout the book. Peterzell also disagrees with Brizendine about the extent that inherent inborn brain differences affect men and women. Furthermore, Peterzell argues that Brizendine either understated or ignored entirely the significant influences of environment and socialization on brain development, as opposed to differences at birth.

Seed writer Liz Lopatto contacted some of the scientists on whose work Brizendine based her thesis; some of them criticized the book for distorting their data.^[3]

Professor Mark Liberman in the Boston Globe, Fact-checking the Female Brain, shows how Brizendine pulled her key statistics from self-help guru Allan Pease who appears to have fabricated them.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Psychoneuroindoctrinology". Young and Balaban. (Nature 443(7112), p. 634, October 2006
2. ^ Peterzell's web site.
3. ^ "The Female Brain Fart". Lopatto, Liz. October 2006.