A study, published in Cerebral
Cortex, suggests that brain androgyny does exist, and it is common. Psychological
androgyny is thought to be psychologically protective. Scientists have long
argued over how different male and female brains really are. There are many
reports of differences between male and female brains in the literature. Other
researchers argue that these differences are tiny, and the categories are
anything but absolute. One study suggested that, psychologically, most of us
are in fact probably somewhere on a spectrum between what we stereotypically
consider a male and a female. To test this, a brain continuum was created using
a machine-learning algorithm and neuroimaging data. While male and female
brains are similar, the connectivity between different brain areas have been
shown to differ.
Researchers used these connectivity
markers to characterise the brains of 9,620 participants (4,495 male and 5,125
female). They discovered that brains were indeed distributed across the entire
continuum rather than just at the two ends. In a sub-sample, approximately 25%
of brains were identified as male, 25% as female and 50% were distributed
across the androgynous section of the continuum. What’s more, we found that
participants who mapped at the centre of this continuum, representing
androgyny, had fewer mental health symptoms, such as depression and anxiety,
compared with those at the two extreme ends. These findings support the
hypothesis that there exists a neuro-imaging concept of brain androgyny, which
may be associated with better mental health in a similar way to psychological
androgyny.
More information:
https://theconversation.com/male-vs-female-brains-having-a-mix-of-both-is-common-and-offers-big-advantages-new-research-153242
