Posted on 02/11/2005 6:20:56 AM PST by presidio9
BOYS may be outperformed by girls at school but there is a glimmer of hope for them. Researchers claim to have found scientific proof that men can think faster than women.
Their study found that men's brain cells could transmit nerve impulses faster than women's – potentially giving males the intellectual edge.
The claim will add fuel to the debate recently triggered by Larry Summers, the president of Harvard University, who challenged the prevailing wisdom when he suggested women were innately less able than men in subjects such as maths and science.
The new study is likely to prompt similar anger. This weekend, the intellectual credentials of the researchers – all male – were themselves already being challenged by other eminent neurologists. In the study, scientists measured nerve conduction velocity, the speed at which messages passed through and between brain cells.
Other studies have suggested the speed of such impulses is linked to intelligence, drawing parallels with computers, where faster processors result in more power to carry out tasks quickly.
The latest paper, to be published shortly in the academic journal Intelligence, will say: "Males had four faster NCVs than females. This very significant sex difference in all test conditions in favour of males was most unexpected."
Under the research, scientists carried out investigations on 186 male and 201 female Canadian students, who were subjected to a battery of cognitive tests to assess their intelligence and other mental skills.
Researchers also measured the length of their subjects' heads to estimate the distance impulses would have to travel from the eye to the primary visual cortex, which interprets what someone is seeing.
Then they used electrodes to measure how long it took for an image flashed in front of the eye to send an impulse back to the visual cortex.
Professor Edward Reed, a zoologist at Toronto University, and Philip Vernon and Andrew Johnson, psychologists at the University of Western Ontario, found the impulses were speeding through men's brains faster than through women's. They suggest this is because the nerves in men's brains have a slightly thicker coating of myelin, a fatty material which protects the nerves and improves conductivity.
The report concludes: "We find that males have four faster NCVs than females with each of the three test conditions, probably due to their faster increase of white matter in the brain during adolescence."
The researchers appear to have realised only recently that such conclusions could prove political and controversial. This weekend all three were refusing to comment on their findings although Vernon said he would consider replying to emails.
It has long been clear that men's and women's brains do have important differences and each tends to perform certain tasks slightly better than the other. For example, some studies suggest men have better spatial skills, while women may be more emotionally aware and verbally fluent.
However, most experts point out that the differences are small compared with the similarities and that there is far more variation between individuals than genders.
Bruce Burns, assistant professor in the department of psychology at Michigan State University, conducted a study of chess players, suggesting those who were quicker thinkers were likely to make better moves.
He said: "There is controversy about sex difference but there seems to be a fair amount of agreement that men do tend to have better visual spatial skills. However, I am not sure we can say that makes them more intelligent."
Desmond Morris, the social anthropologist and zoologist, said evolutionary pressures were likely to have given men and women slightly different skills. "Perhaps men's better visual responses came from having to hunt animals while women developed personal skills from child-rearing and co-operating to grow or gather plants," he said.
However, others reject such simple analyses, comparing the methods of the Canadian research to phrenology, a discredited Victorian science which attempted to link intelligence, creativity and other mental faculties to the size and shape of people's skulls.
Professor Steven Rose, director of the brain and behaviour research group at Britain's Open University, said previous studies suggested no difference in decision-making between men and women. "It is true that men and women use different parts of the brain for similar tasks but the time taken to complete the tasks is identical."
Bea Campbell, the feminist writer and historian, also questioned the findings. "The distribution of intelligence is much the same for all genders and all races," she said. "Our experience and common sense tells us that the quest to prove one or another biological group is brainier than the other is really a vain exercise."
"That's not an asset - it's a debit. Focusing on the task at hand requires attention to detail and the ability to distance critical thinking/problem-solving logic from emotion.
Using both sides of the brain simultaneously is one step away from attention deficit disorder...and that, friend, is a fact."
Sorry, but ADD is not caused by using both sides of the brain simultaneously.
Btw, I think what she's talking about is a rather large PET scan study that was done that showed that woman have the advantage in the verbal/language arena bcse they process those tasks using more of both sides of the brain, while men's verbal/language center is more confined to one side. The purpose of the study was to explore why women lose less verbal ability after strokes. They concluded that, in women, the diffusion of the verbal/language center allowed the hemisphere not affected by the stroke to pick up the slack. Not the case with men. Oddly, similar brain differences were found in another study that had another purpose: to determine whether the notion of 'female intuition' had any validity. They concluded that it did. It seems women accessed certain 'emotional centers' in the brain that men didn't in tasks that required subtle judgments about the motives of others.
I don't doubt that in general men are better in math/spatial tasks and women better in verbal/language tasks, but I know many people, male and female, who don't fit that mould.
Regardless, faster processing is only an advantage if the end result of said processing is correct. You don't just have to think fast in life; you have to think right.
I've never bought this line of thinking strictly because of anecdotal evidence. CEOs and general officers are overwhelmingly male at this point in time. If people think they don't do an incredible amount of multi-tasking, well...
Depends on where you live I guess.
Around here, there are lots of 'Biddy groups'. They date men too, but they have their tight circles of girl friends that they make a point to do things with.
I am baseing my belief that men handle being alone worse than women on equally anecdotal evidence:
Several (older) men I know who have married women they barely liked just to 'have someone in the house'.
Men I know personally that have said 'Hey, we're both alone, lets go out!' as if, well, being alone is in itself enough to drive you to dates of desperation.
Remarks like "But are alone!" as if it is a mark of failure.
AND, the major reason I believe that men fear being alone more than women--
It is the #1 curse shot at any woman by a man as the ultimate damnation--- "Well, you just let those thoughts keep you warm when you are old and alone!"
You curse people with your own greatest fear.
Mine is "May you find yourself trapped in your later years with someone who doesn't love you." :)
"Of course men, on average, are more intelligent. But intelligence is somewhat a subjective term. If one deems it "the mental capacity required to survive", then I think the answer is a clear yes."
Actually, men are NOT, on average, more intelligent. Men have a slightly higher incidence of genius than women, but they also have a slightly higher incidence of low-IQ and retardation.
Um, no. We both start at the same time. It ain't my fault if she can't keep up.
women who need a "posse" to go to the bathroom....
Evidence is evidence. Maybe it's wrong, but don't just announce it's un-PC and has to go away because it offends you.
Its not anecdotal evidence Coop, studies have proven these general differences time and time again, even in how the brains function under MRI examinations etc....
Yes there are exceptions to the rules, and yes men can multitask and women can be good at spacial skills. Doesn't mean generally the sexes are prone to those behaviors.
Generalizations are generalizations, there are always individual exceptions.
Ping for later
I am not sure that men are quicker than women especially in interpersonal situations. I can't tell you how many times I have screwed up with my wife by speaking without thinking or lagging behind where her train of thought was going.
Yes, which is why I used two generalizations in my response.
"Why yes, they do make your butt look big."
Not every males thinks fast (enough)...
I believe we are discussing different terms.
When you refer to "genius" this is typically applied to an I.Q. which is related to mental capacity in a traditional scholarly fashion.
Intelligence, as I was referring to it, was more related to the mental capacity to survive.
Ooooh oooh.... me want banana!! Look, my arms are getting shorter...my legs are getting longer... time to move down from this tree... ooooh oooh...
Using Canadians for intelligence testing is like using turtles for track and field events...
What I don't like about the bruhaha over these kinds of comments and studies is that people obsess on the findings, rather than worrying whether it really has any bearing on our legal approaches.
I for 1 believe this; I also believe other un-PC studies.
And never mind it often cuts both ways. 1 up in this way, down in another way.
But the point is not whether we acknowledge there are differences - it's whether we make that the baseline of law.
It doesn't matter that women might not think as quickly, or whatever.
As long as I'm allowed to TRY to do anything, and do it if I qualify, it doesn't matter if my sisters are all dumber than all my brothers.
As long as I'm not legally BARRED from pursuing this or that, it all doesn't matter. We may know how the group performs, but AS LONG AS INDIVIDUALS ARE GRANTED FULL RIGHTS, why all the fear and vitriole and teeth-gnashing over these studies?
Did I SAY?!?!?! that ADD was CAUSED by using both sides of the brain simultaneously?
No - I didn't.
I did mention FOCUS, however....as in "attention to detail".
Women let them ; - )
Replace 'she' with 'he' and add an 'it' in there and you'll be onto something. Hahahaha
bookmarking.
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