The female brain is characterized by empathizing tendencies (to use Baron-Cohen’s term) or mentalistic thinking (to use Crespi and Badcock’s term). “Empathizing” is the drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, and to respond to them with an appropriate emotion. Empathizing occurs when we feel an appropriate emotional reaction in response to the other person’s emotions. The purpose of this is to understand another person, to predict his or her behavior, and to connect or resonate with him or her emotionally.
The female brain is a "fabulous learning machine" that governs a woman's life from birth to birthing and beyond, says Dr. Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist and author ofThe Female Brain.
Dr. Oz talks with Dr. Brizendine about what makes the female brain unique, as well as some of the fascinating changes that occur in the brain over the course of a woman's life. Here are just a few of her recent findings:
Birth of the female brain
- Up until eight weeks, every brain is female. In males, a huge testosterone surge hits and kills cells off in the communication center, and grows more cells in the sex and aggression centers.
- In females, huge amounts of estrogen spur brain growth and enhance circuits and centers for observation, communication, gut feelings and caring.
The teen girl brain
- During puberty, a girl's primary purpose (from a biological standpoint) is to become sexually desirable and attractive.
- Girls speak two to three times more words per day than boys do and they also talk faster.
- Connecting through talking activates the pleasure centers in a girl's brain, Dr. Brizendine says
The mommy brain
- The brain shrinks during pregnancy—it does not lose cells but changes metabolism and restructures. Then in the final one to two weeks, the brain begins to increase in size again and construct maternal circuits. It does not return to its former size until about six months after giving birth. "We don't know what it's doing but we think it has something to do with redeveloping the mommy brain's circuits, but also maybe even letting the fetus 'snack' on the mommy's brain," Dr. Brizendine says.
The mature female brain
- The "mommy brain" unplugs.
- Menopause means the end of the hormones that have boosted communication circuits, emotion circuits, the drive to tend and care, and the urge to avoid conflict at all costs.
- More than 65 percent of divorces after the age of 50 are initiated by women. Dr.
- Brizendine attributes this to something called "post-menopausal zest." "They want their turn, they want to go and do stuff that they're passionate about and step out in a more independent way—they don't want to be taking care of everybody else," she says.
Sex and emotions
- Female sexual turn-on begins with a brain turn-off: Orgasms can only be triggered when the amygdala (the fear and anxiety center) is turned off. "It requires turning off the worrywart circuits in the female brain to have an orgasm," Dr. Brizendine explains.
- For women, foreplay is everything that happens in the 24 hours before intercourse. "She needs to feel comfortable and loving towards her partner and everything in the relationship is alright, so you're reducing that amygdala's activation that something is dangerous or fearful," Dr. Brizendine says.
- Women have evolved to cry four times more easily than men. "The silent treatment is not a way, women, to get his attention," Dr. Brizendine says. "Crying is a way to get his attention that something is wrong and upsetting you."
Scientists believe they have finally come up with an explanation about the way the mind of a woman works. A study has found that the legendary feminine unpredictability has its basis in genetics.
Certain genes, influencing human personality and behavior, vary more widely in women than they do in men. Unfortunately this makes it much harder to figure out what any individual woman will be like.
Since women have two X chromosomes, scientists have believed for a long time that genes are "randomly silenced' on one of these. This is to avoid what is called "double dosing" which is having two genes that fulfill the same role.
In this latest research, it is shown that 15% of these genes are not actually silenced in women. In some, but not in others, a further 10% are active. Scientists say that, after all, these findings mean women do get "double doses" of some genes. Many of these genes are linked to the risk of various diseases, but some do help to determine personality traits.
So, this means, for example, that if there was a gene on the X chromosome for happiness, then this would mean women vary more greatly in how happy they are likely to be than men. This means that while men would either have a healthy copy of the gene or not, woman have the possibility of two working copies making them happier.
In a group of 100 women, there would be a much greater variation of happiness, moodiness, aggression, or just about any trait that is affected by genetics than would be found in men.
"This could mean that women are much more variable than men," said Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research. "They could have greater variations in their susceptibility to disease but also in their behavior and physical appearance."
What Happens in the Female Brain During Sex?
Some when referring to sexual attraction insist that everything starts from the mind. As new research shows, everything ends there! U.S. researchers announced that they had solved one piece of the mystery of what happens in the brain during sex by monitoring the activity of the female brain during an orgasm.
Research group from Rutgers University in New Jersey, using imaging machines, studied the brains of women during orgasm and found that different brain regions were activated depending on which body part was the source of sexual excitement. Specifically, the scientists identified thirty different parts of the brain that were activated, including the centers responsible for emotion, touch, joy, satisfaction and memory. “Knowing the sequence of events from stimulation to orgasm allows us to see what parts of the brain become activated and in what order.
If we can compare this to the brain activity in anorgasmic women, we can see at what point their orgasm gets blocked and work out whether it’s possible to get around that block,” said Barry Komisaruk of the Rutgers University. Two minutes before orgasm the brain centers associated with reward were activated (they also are triggered when we eat and drink). Shortly before orgasm, other brain regions were activated, such as the cortex that receives sensory messages of touch from all over the body. The last brain area to be activated was the hypothalamus, the control center that regulates temperature, hunger, thirst and fatigue.
The researchers also found that sexual excitement numbs the female nervous system blocking the sensation of pain and leaving only that of pleasure. The research team from the Rutgers University will now attempt to map the male brain at the time of orgasm. Moreover, the previous studies have already identified a chemical difference between men and women which causes the differences in attitude towards sex.
Researchers of the Spire Liverpool Hospital found that during sex women produce higher levels of oxytocin, the hormone that binds us emotionally to our partner. It is worth noting that this hormone is produced in the same quantities, whether it is a one night stand or a serious relationship. In men, instead, the orgasm stimulates the nervous system to produce more dopamine, the pleasure hormone, and this surge even can be addictive.
That is why women are more likely to fall in love with a man after having sex with him, while for men sex is just a surge of simple pleasure…
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