Posted on 03/05/2008 2:15:27 PM PST by blam
Boys And Girls Brains Are Different: Gender Differences In Language Appear Biological
New research shows that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rich Legg)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) — Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys, until now no one has clearly provided a biological basis that may account for their differences.
For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa show both that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks.
"Our findings -- which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls -- could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single sex classrooms," said Douglas D. Burman, research associate in Northwestern's Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers measured brain activity in 31 boys and in 31 girls aged 9 to 15 as they performed spelling and writing language tasks.
The tasks were delivered in two sensory modalities -- visual and auditory. When visually presented, the children read certain words without hearing them. Presented in an auditory mode, they heard words aloud but did not see them.
Using a complex statistical model, the researchers accounted for differences associated with age, gender, type of linguistic judgment, performance accuracy and the method -- written or spoken -- in which words were presented.
The researchers found that girls still showed significantly greater activation in language areas of the brain than boys. The information in the tasks got through to girls' language areas of the brain -- areas associated with abstract thinking through language. And their performance accuracy correlated with the degree of activation in some of these language areas.
To their astonishment, however, this was not at all the case for boys. In boys, accurate performance depended -- when reading words -- on how hard visual areas of the brain worked. In hearing words, boys' performance depended on how hard auditory areas of the brain worked.
If that pattern extends to language processing that occurs in the classroom, it could inform teaching and testing methods.
Given boys' sensory approach, boys might be more effectively evaluated on knowledge gained from lectures via oral tests and on knowledge gained by reading via written tests. For girls, whose language processing appears more abstract in approach, these different testing methods would appear unnecessary.
"One possibility is that boys have some kind of bottleneck in their sensory processes that can hold up visual or auditory information and keep it from being fed into the language areas of the brain," Burman said. This could result simply from girls developing faster than boys, in which case the differences between the sexes might disappear by adulthood.
Or, an alternative explanation is that boys create visual and auditory associations such that meanings associated with a word are brought to mind simply from seeing or hearing the word.
While the second explanation puts males at a disadvantage in more abstract language function, those kinds of sensory associations may have provided an evolutionary advantage for primitive men whose survival required them to quickly recognize danger-associated sights and sounds.
If the pattern of females relying on an abstract language network and of males relying on sensory areas of the brain extends into adulthood -- a still unresolved question -- it could explain why women often provide more context and abstract representation than men.
Ask a woman for directions and you may hear something like: "Turn left on Main Street, go one block past the drug store, and then turn right, where there's a flower shop on one corner and a cafe across the street."
Such information-laden directions may be helpful for women because all information is relevant to the abstract concept of where to turn; however, men may require only one cue and be distracted by additional information.
Burman is primary author of "Sex Differences in Neural Processing of Language Among Children." Co-authored by James R. Booth (Northwestern University) and Tali Bitan (University of Haifa), the article will be published in the March issue of the journal Neuropsychologia and now is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.12.021.
Adapted from materials provided by Northwestern University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Larry Summers was fired as Harvard President for similar heresy.
Get much bussiness at that bar?
Me: "Honey, what are we going to have for dinner tonight?"
Her: "I think I'll go to the store."
Watch it suckas!!! Larry Summers, President, Harvard University, was outed by the female faculty for saying that males are better at math and science.
As a female who held her own and bested many males at math and science, this is hogwash... I think intelligence is an individual gift.
I could’ve saved them a few thousand dollars if they had asked me.
Did he REALLY say that? I thought he just said something akin to how innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers.
Exactly......and it took a scientific study.......
As a female who held her own and bested many males at math and science, this is hogwash... I think intelligence is an individual gift.
Funny thing is... the more free drinks they give away the more money they make!
How much taxpayer money did they waste on that?
Any parent could have told them boys and girls are different. :-))
LOL
They are also more dramatic on the left tail. A lot more men are retarded or autistic.
But it is also a group gift. See the link in post 15.
“Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys”
Is it just me or is there something quite awkward about the phrase above?
The article is about averages. It has absolutely nothing to say about any individual.
Many women are excellent performers in math and science. Many men are highly verbal.
But averages and statistical performance by group are also important.
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