[Dimi (OP)]

So, an interesting question I think.

What are the limitations on the mind based on gender?

This goes back to my thought-process paradigm. So, do girls inheritly have a different thought process paradigm vs guys? Or is this all hype and is limiting the potential for neurons to connect or they just simply can't connect?

I wouldn't have a clue how to bridge the gap!

[Mr. Scientist]

Woman can be just as intelligent as man.

In scotland recently, there has been a massive decline in male passes in exams. What does this teach us?

[Dimi (OP)]

Hey I never suggested woman being inferior. What I ment was something along the lines of - females can do things better that males have trouble with and vice versa.

Is this because of natural growth due to hormones, or the way people are treated based on gender?

[JimBob]

Women "seem" to be more intuitive than men. I know of no empirical data but it has been my experience that this is a good observation.

[yor_on]

I agree, as most males I guess
Altough what they call their 'intuition' I call damned impertinence

[Nizzle]

There are the evolutionary arguments ofcourse..
Examples:
- Women are better at multitasking than men because in prehistoric times, they stayed home to raise children, pluck fruits, tidy the hut etc.
- Men have a better sense of direction than women because in prehistoric times, they needed to find their way back after a hunting party.
- Women are more verbally developped than men, because in prehistoric times, women spent more time amongst each other in the village, where communication was not disturbing, while men were out hunting together where silence was a big factor in the success of the hunt.
- ...

I think in the future, these typical differences will flatten out due to the more similar lifestyle between men and women compared to history

[Dimi (OP)]

Thank you! That is a good one.

Will the brain always develop differently based off of gender, or will that even change to due to a shift in life style?

[Nizzle]

There will always be a gender discrepancy.
A nice anatomical example is this:

Why is it that men have less problems cheating their wives than vice versa? And why do more men can have sex without the need for 'feelings'?

This is because in the brain, there are parts of the cortex involved in emotion processing and parts of the cortex involved in feelings of lust.

These two parts lay next to each other, but in a male brain, they are more clearly distinctive while in a female brain, these two parts have fused more and have more connections. (This is probably because the cortex part that processes emotions is bigger in a female brain, which gives a bigger overlap between emotions and lust).

Another anatomical difference I know of is that the volume of a male brain is bigger than a female brain, but the surface of the brain is bigger in a female brain.
(my next comment is exploratory and not proven:) This might mean that a female brain has a bigger processing capacity due to bigger cortex, but a male brain is faster due to more and better conductivity between body and brain cortex.

[PhysBang]

There are the evolutionary arguments ofcourse..

Except that these are not evolutionarty argument. In order for these to be evolutionary arguments, these things have to be a) likely to be true and b) relate to a heritable trait that is linked to a sex gene.

Examples:
- Women are better at multitasking than men because in prehistoric times, they stayed home to raise children, pluck fruits, tidy the hut etc.

a) The evidence for this gender-specific behaviour is not very good. b) There is no evidence for a sex-gene-link to multitasking.

- Men have a better sense of direction than women because in prehistoric times, they needed to find their way back after a hunting party.

a) The evidence for this gender-specific behaviour is not very good. b) There is no evidence for a sex-gene-link to direction.

- Women are more verbally developped than men, because in prehistoric times, women spent more time amongst each other in the village, where communication was not disturbing, while men were out hunting together where silence was a big factor in the success of the hunt.

a) The evidence for this gender-specific behaviour is not very good. b) There is no evidence for a sex-gene-link to communication.

Much of the "in stone age times, men and women behaved like this" that is commonly thrown around is based solely on how people 100 years ago expected men and women to behave.

I think in the future, these typical differences will flatten out due to the more similar lifestyle between men and women compared to history

This I can agree with. A lot of the gender differences out there are there because of our own expectations and those behaviours that we internalize, selectively train in, or recognize through selection bias. E.g., if a women gets lost, there is a running gag about sense of direction that promotes us noticing this event.

There will always be a gender discrepancy.
A nice anatomical example is this:

Why is it that men have less problems cheating their wives than vice versa? And why do more men can have sex without the need for 'feelings'?

This is probably a myth.

This is because in the brain, there are parts of the cortex involved in emotion processing and parts of the cortex involved in feelings of lust.

This seems like phrenology, but I would be interested in seeing some evidence, any evidence. The only researchers out there reporting differences in male and female brains are reporting pretty small differences, so it seems unlikely that there is any significant difference related to special parts of the brain.

[Nizzle]

PhysBang: Evolution does not necessarily imply biological evolution. Culture and social behavior evolves as well. I agree there is no sex-linked gene for sense of direction, multitasking or communication, but we humans are more than our genes (cf Neuroplasticity and Psychoplasticity). (in spirit of: the whole is more than the sum of it's parts).

For the emo/lust differences in the male/female brain: I have seen this on a science program on Belgian TV a while back and the concept was explained by a Professor of an English University. I'm sorry but I can't remember the Professor's name or the University where he was working.

[rosy]

I wouldn't be surprised if you're thinking of Simon Baron-Cohen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Baron-Cohen
If you're looking up Baron-Cohen's work the big advice is to look at what he says it is, not at newspaper reports.. because all this male-female-differences stuff makes the press very excitable (and that which makes the press excitable tends also to make them inaccurate).

[Dimi (OP)]

I've never heard of him actually

These thoughts are my own as I wonder why my friend (female) is hard to understand at times. Haha.

I will look into him however it sounds like a good read.